Inhibition of a Fuel Lean Ethylene/Air Flame in a Jet Stirred Combustor by Methyl Chloride: Experimental and Mechanistic Analyses

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Abstract
Probability density functions (PDFs) of instantaneous temperature have been obtained for fuel lean C2 H4 /air burning in a toroidal jet stirred combustor (TJSC) using pulsed laser Rayleigh scattering. The PDFs provide a very sensitive measure of departures from perfectly stirred reactor (PSR) behavior, Narrow PDFs were obtained under stable operating conditions. As the mean combustion temperature was reduced or the reaction kinetics decelerated by the addition of CH3,C1, the PDFs exhibited a bimodal distribution indicative of localized blowout. Modeling of the reactions indicates that chlorine primarily destabilizes this hydrocarbon oxidation system by inhibiting the burnout of CO. This inhibition is affected through significant depletion of OH in the presence of relatively high levels of HC1 by the reaction OH + HC1 = H2O + CI. Inhibition is further affected by the termination reaction CI + HO2 + HCI + O2 because HO2 is a source of OH.