Novel technique for coal pyrolysis and hydrogenation product analysis. Final technical report

摘要

A microjet reactor coupled to a VUV photoionization time-of-flight mass spectrometer has been used to obtain species measurements during high temperature pyrolysis and oxidation of a wide range of hydrocarbon compounds ranging from allene and acetylene to cyclohexane, benzene and toluene. Initial work focused on calibration of the technique, optimization of ion collection and detection and characterization of limitations. Using the optimized technique with 118 nm photoionization, intermediate species profiles were obtained for analysis of the hydrocarbon pyrolysis and oxidation mechanisms. The ''soft'' ionization, yielding predominantly molecular ions, allowed the study of reaction pathways in these high temperature systems where both sampling and detection challenges are severe. Work has focused on the pyrolysis and oxidative pyrolysis of aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbon mixtures representative of coal pyrolysis and hydropyrolysis products. The detailed mass spectra obtained during pyrolysis and oxidation of hydrocarbon mixtures is especially important because of the complex nature of the product mixture even at short residence times and low primary reactant conversions. The combustion community has advanced detailed modeling of pyrolysis and oxidation to the C4 hydrocarbon level but in general above that size uncertainties in rate constant and thermodynamic data do not allow us to a priori predict products from mixed hydrocarbon pyrolyses using a detailed chemistry model. For pyrolysis of mixtures of coal-derived liquid fractions with a large range of compound structures and molecular weights in the hundreds of amu the modeling challenge is severe. Lumped models are possible from stable product data.