Unexpectedly high concentrations of NO₂ have been noted in stack emissions from industrial gas turbines. NO₂ formation appears to occur through the so called "HO₂ mechanism II in which NO combines with HO₂ to produce NO₂ and OH. In this study, the formation of NO₂ was investigated through computer modeling and experimental testing.
Computer modeling utilized the CHEMKIN chemical kinetics program and a subset of a previously published C-H-O-N system mechanism. Experimental work was conducted using a high pressure flow reactor designed and built in the course of the study. The effects of pressure, temperature, and the presence of a NO₂ promoting hydrocarbon, methane, were investigated. It was discovered that as pressure increased from 1 atm. to 8.5 atm., the rate and amount of NO converted to NO₂ also increased. There also appeared to be a temperature "window" between approximately 800 and 1000 K in which NO to NO₂ conversion readily occurred. The presence of methane was seen to enhance NO conversion to NO₂, and a ratio of [CH₄]/[NO] was found to be a useful parameter in predicting NO₂ formation. Significant NO conversion to NO₂ was noted for [CH₄]/[NO] > 1 at the hydrocarbon injection point. Experimental results validated those trends obtained from modeling with a modified C-H-O-N mechanism. / Master of Science
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/43317 |
| Date | 16 June 2009 |
| Creators | Hunderup, James W. |
| Contributors | Mechanical Engineering, Roby, Richard J., Vandsburger, Uri, Roe, Larry A. |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Text |
| Format | x, 170 leaves, BTD, application/pdf, application/pdf |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
| Relation | OCLC# 29850382, LD5655.V855_1993.H862.pdf |
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