Pyrolysis of n-Butane-Explicit Effects of Primary and Secondary Butyl Radicals and of Secondary Reactions

Abstract

The pyrolysis of -butane was studied in a tubular gold reactor at temperatures of 515-605°C, at atmospheric pressure, and mole fractions of butane between 0.01 and 0.9. Under these conditions the conversions of butane were 0.03-7.0%. It was found that the orders of reaction with respect to butane for the various products were not equal and ranged from 1.15 to 1.67. A mechanism, which includes explicit effects of primary and secondary butyl radicals as well as some possibly significant secondary reactions, is proposed which quantitatively explains the product ratios, orders of reaction, and activation energies. The mechanism shows that the role of secondary reactions is small at the low conversions used in this study.

High pressure pyrolysis of n-heptane

“…Numerous studies have been published on the pyrolysis of n-paraffins such as ethane, propane, n-butane, n-heptane, n-decane, n-hexadecane etc. at atmospheric pressure [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16]. The main thrust in these studies has been to enhance the yield of low molecular weight olefins.…”

Modeling of Thermal Cracking Kinetics. 3. Radical Mechanisms for the Pyrolysis of Simple Paraffins, Olefins, and Their Mixtures

“…n-Butane Cracking Low-temperature pyrolysis of n -butane has been modeled by Blakemore and Corcoran (1969), Blakemore et al (1973), Powers andCorcoran (1974), and Aliara and Edelson (1975). Pacey and Purnell (1972c) have proposed a model for hightemperature cracking.…”

High‐pressure oxidation of n‐butane

“…The chemical kinetics of n ‐butane oxidation has been investigated in a number of studies 3–6,14–25 . Earlier models have mainly focused on high‐temperature pyrolysis and oxidation.…”