Hetero-homogeneous pyrolysis of isobutane and platinum wall-effects in conditioned or unconditioned reactors

The pyrolysis of isobutane has been studied at 500°C in a “Pyrex” static reactor packed with platinum. It is shown that both dehydrogenation and demethanat on rates are strongly depressed by the metal packing. The reaction rates are very sensitive to the amount of cabonaceous coating which is deposited on the walls. As this amount increases, both rates first increase, go through a maximum and decrease. These observations are compared with those previously made on propane pyrolysis in a “Pyrex” reactor packed with stainless steel. The present results are interpreted on the basis of a hetero-homogeneous chain mechanism in which the selectivity of the free-radical reaction is not altered referring to the unpacked reactor. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

The pyrolysis of propane

The pyrolysis of propane plays an important role in determining the combustion properties of natural gas mixtures and offers insight into the cracking patterns of larger fuels. This work investigates propane pyrolysis behind reflected shock waves with a multiwavelength laser-absorption speciation technique. Nine laser wavelengths, sensitive to key pyrolysis species, were used to measure absorbance time histories during the decomposition of 2% propane in argon between 1022 and 1467 K, 3.7-4.3 atm. Absorbance models were developed at each diagnostic wavelength to interrogate common initial conditions, and time histories of all major species are reported at 1250, 1290, 1330, 1370, and 1410 K. Nearly complete carbon recovery observed at lower temperatures enabled the inference of hydrogen formation from atomic conservation, while decaying carbon recovery at high temperatures suggests the formation of allene and 1-butene. The results show systematically faster pyrolysis than predicted by kinetic modeling and motivate further study into the kinetics of propane pyrolysis.     

The pyrolysis of hexachloroethane

The thermal decomposition of hexachloroethane in the presence of chlorine has been studied over the temperature range 340-400°C and a pressure range of 0.5°2.5 atm. The rate of the unimolecular C? C bond spliting reaction can be described by the Arrhenius equation Comparison of these rate data with thermodynamic data suggests a combination rate for CCl₃ radicals which is consistent with earlier measurements.     

Adsorption of isobutane on H-TsVM zeolite

A procedure was developed for evaluating the adsorption of hydrocarbons on solids by monitoring the temperature of the gas over the sample layer and inside it, the heat conductivity of the gas at the inlet and outlet of the flow reactor, and the composition of the gas after the sample. The adsorption-desorption of isobutane accompanied by heat liberation or absorption (recorded as a temperature change in the zeolite layer) was studied using the H-TsVM zeolite as an example. The temperature effects during isobutane adsorption and desorption were compared. It was concluded that below ～90°C, some part of isobutane is significantly chemisorbed on H-TsVM. The highly adsorbed isobutane can be removed by keeping the sample in a nitrogen flow for a long time or by heating it above 90°C. Time dependence of isobutane desorption at constant temperature can be described by first order kinetic equation, making possible to estimate the activation energy of desorption of highly chemisorbed isobutane using the data on thermodesorption at linear temperature increase.     

The reaction of atomic oxygen O(3P) with isobutane

The reaction of O(³P) atoms with isobutane has been studied by using the discharge-flow system described previously [1]. The rate constant was measured from determinations of the isobutane concentration in the presence of an excess of O atoms and is given by k₁ = (7.9 ± 1.4) × 10⁷ dm³/mol·s at 307 K. In order to explain the observed reaction products, the mechanism requires that the principal process be the successive abstraction of H atoms from isobutane and from the t-butyl radical to give isobutene. A minor part of the reaction between O(³P) and the t-butyl radical gives the t-butoxy radical, which decomposes to acetone. The branching ratios are .     

The kinetics of tobacco pyrolysis

When tobacco is pyrolysed under non-isothermal flow conditions in an inert atmosphere, variation of the inert gas or its space velocity has only a minor effect on the profiles of formation rate versus temperature for seven product gases. Thus, mass transfer processes between the tobacco surface and the gas phase are very rapid, and the products are formed at an overall rate which is determined entirely by that of the chemical reactions.The effect of radical chain inhibitors (nitrogen oxides) on the pyrolysis is complex because of the resultant oxidation. Nevertheless, no evidence was found for the occurrence of radical chain reactions in the gas phase. A small proportion (less than 10%) of all the gases monitored are formed by homogeneous decomposition of volatile and semi-volatile intermediate products, in the furnace used.At temperatures above about 600°C the reduction of carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide by the carbonaceous tobacco residue becomes increasingly important. However, when tobacco is pyrolysed in an inert atmosphere, only a small amount of carbon dioxide is produced above 600°C and consequently its reduction to carbon monoxide contributes only a small proportion to the total carbon monoxide formed above that temperature. The rate of the tobacco/carbon dioxide reaction is controlled by chemical kinetic rather than mass transfer effects. Carbon monoxide reacts with tobacco to a small extent.When the tobacco is pyrolysed in an atmosphere containing oxygen (9–21% v/v), some oxidation occurs at 200°C. At 250°C the combustion rate is controlled jointly by both kinetic and mass transfer processes, but mass transfer of oxygen in the gas phase becomes increasingly important as the temperature is increased, and it is dominant above 400°C. About 8% of the total carbon monoxide formed by combustion is lost by its further oxidation.The results imply that inside the combustion coal of a burning cigarette the actual reactions occurring are of secondary importance, the rate of supply of oxygen being the dominant factor in determining the combustion rate and heat generation. In contrast, in the region immediately behind the coal, where a large proportion of the products which enter mainstream smoke are formed by thermal decomposition of tobacco constituents, the chemistry of the tobacco substrate is critical, since the decomposition kinetics are controlled by chemical rather than mass transfer effects. tobacco substrate is critical. In addition, the heat release or absorption due to the pyrolytic reactions occurring behind the coal will depend on the chemical composition of the substrate. Thus, together with the differing thermal properties of the tobacco, the temperature gradient behind the coal should depend on the nature of the tobacco.     

The cyclopropene pyrolysis story

Cyclopropene is the last of the small strained ring hydrocarbons to have its thermal decomposition subjected to intensive investigation. This critical review describes the nearly 40 year history of this investigation largely by gas kinetic methods with chromatographic analysis. These studies have revealed that cyclopropenes can decompose by a variety of mechanisms involving diradicals, vinylcarbenes and vinylidenes. Much detailed information has been obtained about the reactivity of these intermediates which has wider implications for thermal hydrocarbon pyrolysis. Theory has also played a important role. Cyclopropene itself has been shown to be an intermediate in the allene --> propyne rearrangement. The story itself illustrates how the evolution of mechanistic understanding has been anything but straightforward.     

Overtone spectroscopy of isobutane at cryogenic temperatures

The spectra of the fundamental and overtones of the C---H stretches of (CH₃)₃CH have been measured in liquid argon solutions at 90 K and for the pure liquid sample at 135 K. Absorptions in the visible were obtained with a low temperature cell and a resonant continuous wave laser technique with acoustic detection. Absorptions in the IR and near-IR were observed with a Fourier transform spectrophotometer. Comparison is made between the absorption bands in gas phase, liquid argon solution, and liquid phase isobutane. The spectra of isobutane in solution show improved resolution of the vibrational bands with respect to the room temperature gas phase bands and the pure liquid bands at 135 K. To interpret the experimental results, overtone transitions are described in terms of the local mode model. A harmonically coupled anharmonic oscillator (HCAO) model was used to determine the overtone energy levels and assign the absorption bands to vibrational transitions. Ab initio molecular orbital calculations of geometries and vibrational frequencies were also performed.     

Kinetic study and modeling of the hetero-homogeneous pyrolysis and oxidation of isobutane around 800 K. Part I. Pyrolysis in an unpacked pyrex reactor

Isobutane pyrolysis is studied in an unpacked Pyrex reactor at 20–100 torr initial pressures and 750–793 K. Results are interpreted in terms of a long chain radical mechanism and the reaction is modeled. The reaction selectivity or ratio of the initial production rate of isobutene (or hydrogen) to that of propene (or methane) is practically given by the ratio of the rate constant of abstraction of a tertiary hydrogen atom of isobutane to that of a primary one. A sensitivity analysis clearly shows that self-inhibition is essentially due to methylallyl radicals produced by hydrogen abstraction from isobutene. The model has been manually adjusted to experimental results and most of the adjusted rate constants are in agreement with literature data. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Int J Chem Kinet: 30: 425–437, 1998     

The pyrolysis of trimethylgermane and trimethylsilane

The number of products and the H₂/CH₄ ratio obtained from the flow pyrolyses of (CH₃)₃GeH and (CH₃)₃SiH were very different. The (CH₃)₃GeH decomposition is consistent with the following mechanism:

Full-size image

The pyrolysis of (CH₃)₃SiH was found to be much more complex, presumably due to the formation of silicon-carbon double bonded intermediates and the (CH₃)₂Si(H)CH₂ radical. We also present data which supports the presence of a H atom chain sequence during this pyrolysis.     

The high temperature pyrolysis of ethylbenzene

The thermal decomposition of ethylbenzene has been investigated behind reflected shock waves over the temperature and pressure ranges of 1350–2080 K and 0.25–0.5 atm using a 1.6% C₈H₁₀ ? Ne mixture. Major products of the pyrolysis are C₇H₈, C₇H₇, C₆H₆, C₄H₂, C₂H₄, C₂H₂, and CH₄; C₈H₈ appears throughout the temperature range as a minor product. Comparison of the product profiles obtained by time-of-flight mass spectrometry and the results of model calculations strongly supports the initiation step of β C? C bond homolysis for C₈H₁₀ dissociation. A 51 kinetic step reaction mechanism with 24 species was formulated to model the temperature and time dependence of the major products observed in our experiments.     

The homogeneous pyrolysis of 2-butenes

The homogeneous pyrolysis of 2-butene subjected to shock heating was studied in the limit of high pressures by a relative rate technique. Over the temperature range of 1150–1325°K nearly equal amounts of methane, propylene, and butadiene were formed starting with either the cis- or trans-2-butene, while isomerization remained far from equilibrium. The results are consistent with a simple free radical mechanism for which we find as the initial rate-limiting step.     

The gas phase pyrolysis of phenol

Phenol pyrolysis has been studied in a turbulent flow reactor by analyzing concentration-time profiles of three major decomposition products: carbon monoxide, cyclopentadiene, and benzene. Experimental conditions were P = 1 atm, T = 1064 ? 1162 K, and initial phenol concentrations of 500?2016 ppm. The major experimental observations were that the decomposition product profiles were nearly linear as a function of time and that the overall rate of carbon monoxide production was greater than that of cyclopentadiene. The rate difference is explained by a mechanism which includes a radical combination reaction of cyclopentadienyl and phenoxy. With literature and approximate rate coefficient data, the mechanism reproduced the experimental observations very well. The mechanism and data provide estimates of rate coefficients for the phenol decomposition initiation step, abstraction of hydrogen from phenol by cyclopentadienyl, and the phenoxy-cyclopentadienyl combination, all of which have not been available in the literature.     

Very low-pressure pyrolysis (VLPP) of alkanes: n-butane, 2,3-dimethylbutane, 2,2′,3,3′ -tetramethylbutane,and isobutane

The four species in the title were decomposed under VLPP conditions at temperatures in the vicinity of 1100°K. Three model transition states were constructed that fit the low-pressure data thus obtained and that also yield (1) E₂₉₈ = ΔE₂₉₈; (2) E₁₁₀₀ = ΔE₁₁₀₀; (3) log A₁₁₀₀ = 16.4 per C–C bond broken. The predictions of these models as to values of the high-pressure rate constants for bond scission and the reverse rate constants (radical combination) are compared with existing data.     

Solubilities of isobutane and cyclopropane in ionic liquids

In this work, we presented the solubilities of isobutane and cyclopropane in 1-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide ([HMIM][Tf₂N]) and trihexyl tetradecylphosphonium bis(2,4,4-trimethylpentyl) phosphinate ([P(14)666][TMPP]) from T = (302 to 344) K up to 1.16 MPa. Henry’s constants for isobutane and cyclopropane in [HMIM][Tf₂N] and [P(14)666][TMPP] were calculated from experimental results. Solubilities of isobutane and cyclopropane in [HMIM][Tf₂N] are apparently smaller than those in [P(14)666][TMPP]. The effects of temperature, pressure and the number of carbon atoms in the hydrocarbons on the solubility were investigated in detail. A modified Krichevsky–Kasarnovsky equation was successfully applied to correlate the experimental results. The mean absolute relative deviations and the maximum absolute relative deviations are less than (2.4 and 4.6)%, respectively.     

The pyrolysis characteristics of moso bamboo

In the research, thermogravimetry (TG), a combination of thermogravimetry and Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (TG–FTIR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) were used to investigate pyrolysis characteristics of moso bamboo (Phyllostachys pubescens). The Flynn–Wall–Ozawa and Coats–Redfern (modified) methods were used to determine the apparent activation energy (E_a). The TG curve indicated that the pyrolysis process of moso bamboo included three steps and the main pyrolysis occurred in the second steps with temperature range from 450 K to 650 K and over 68.69% mass was degraded. TG–FTIR analysis showed that the main pyrolysis products included absorbed water (H₂O), methane gas (CH₄), carbon dioxide (CO₂), acids and aldehydes, ammonia gas (NH₃), etc. XRD analysis expressed that the index and width crystallinity of moso bamboo gradually increased from 273 K to 538 K and cellulose gradually degraded from amorphous region to crystalline region. The E_a values of moso bamboo increased with conversion rate increase from 10 to 70. The E_a values were, respectively 153.37–198.55 kJ/mol and 152.14–197.87 kJ/mol based on Flynn–Wall–Ozawa and Coats–Redfern (modified) methods. The information was very helpful and significant to design manufacturing process of bio-energy, made from moso bamboo, using gasification or pyrolysis methods.