The chemistry of propane continues to play a pivotal role in today's power production technologies. As reliance on natural gas expands as greener cleaner fuels are sought throughout the world, especially as countries are attempting to transition away from traditional coal and crude-oil fired plants towards solar, wind, and hydro-electric sources. Natural gas, often seen as a bridge fuel between these two competing ends, has been in the recent past and for the foreseeable future will continue to play an important role in the energy sector. Among the components of natural gas, propane plays a key role in the chemistry for both pyrolysis and combustion. While the composition of natural gas is primarily dominated by the presence of methane, the heavier hydrocarbons especially propane dominates the chemistry of reactions. Thus, developing a healthy understanding of the pyrolysis of propane will aid in deepening insights into the chemistry that dominates that of natural gas. The pyrolysis of propane was carried out behind reflected shockwaves at elevated temperatures. Species concentration histories were recorded simultaneously using a broadband mid-infrared optical parametric oscillator to probe the reacting flows. Concentration histories for methane, acetylene, ethylene, ethane, propene, and propane were collected over a range of pressures and temperatures (pressures of ~4 to 5 atm, and temperatures of 1105 to 1304 K). These species were chosen due to there prevalence in the computational and theoretical framework of the pyrolysis of propane, but have been difficult to experimentally measure due to overlapping molecular absorption spectra.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ucf.edu/oai:stars.library.ucf.edu:etd2020-2015 |
| Date | 01 January 2022 |
| Creators | Greene, Robert |
| Publisher | STARS |
| Source Sets | University of Central Florida |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020- |
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