Influence of the concentration of ethanol and the interaction of compounds in the pyrolysis of acetylene and ethanol mixtures

The pyrolysis of acetylene, ethanol and acetylene–ethanol mixtures in the 975–1475 K temperature range has been studied. The purpose of this work is to analyze the variation of soot and gas products coming from the pyrolysis of acetylene when adding increasing amounts of ethanol. Gas and soot products coming from the pyrolysis of 30,000 ppm of acetylene and different concentrations of ethanol (0–20,000 ppm) have been identified and quantified, and the influence of the amount of ethanol added has been analyzed. Analyses are supported on model calculations run with Chemkin using a detailed gas phase chemical kinetic mechanism, including subsets for acetylene and ethanol reactions and PAH formation and consumption reactions. In addition, the sum of the soot obtained from the individual pyrolysis of acetylene and ethanol is compared with the results coming from the pyrolysis of the corresponding acetylene–ethanol mixtures in order to analyze the interaction when they react jointly. Experimental results highlight the importance of the relative concentration acetylene/ethanol in the mixtures. Moreover, the results show that adding very small concentrations of ethanol, i.e. up to 600 times lower than acetylene concentration, leads to a diminution on the production of soot from the pyrolysis of acetylene.