Soot formation from premixed ethylene and benzene flames

The particle size distributions (PSD) from a flat-flame burner fueled with benzene and ethylene were studied and results were compared to a simulation. A detailed kinetic mechanism was used to model the experimental data. The model includes reaction pathways leading to the formation of nano-sized particles and their coagulation to larger soot particles by using a discrete-sectional approach for the gas-to-particle process. Gas precursor predictions for the benzene flame showed that the precursor concentration of aromatics was higher as compared to ethylene flames. The ethylene flame showed two modes in the size distribution functions with small particles higher in the flame. The results were not well reproduced by the model. Gas precursor predictions for ethylene suggested lower concentrations of aromatics and higher concentration of acetylene, suggesting that the formation pathways are different. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the 2007 AIChE Annual Meeting (Salt Lake City, UT 11-4-9/2007).