Tutorial 45

CP533 Clean Combustion Technologies

Q1. When burning a stoichiometric mixture of C8H18 with air, estimate the unburnt amount of
fuel (in percentage) if there is 1% CO emission detected in the flue gas.
Q2. The famous Zeldovich mechanism (thermal mechanism) for the formation of nitric oxide
from atmospheric nitrogen:
k1f
N2 + O → NO + N
k2f
N + O2 → NO + O
Because the second reaction is much faster than the first, the steady-state approximation can be
used to evaluate the N-atom concentration. Furthermore, in high-temperature systems, the NO
formation reaction is typically much slower than other reactions involving O2 and O. Thus, O2
and O can be assumed to be in equilibrium:
KP
O2 ⇔ 2O
Construct a global mechanism
k𝐺
N2 + O2 → 2NO
Represented as
d[NO]
= k G [N2 ]m [O2 ]n
dt
Determine KG, m and n using the elementary rate coefficients, etc., from the detailed mechanism.
Q3. Consider the shock-heating of air to 2500K and 3atm. Use the results of (Q2) to determine:
a) The initial nitric oxide formation rate in ppm/s.
b) The amount of nitric oxide formed (in ppm) in 0.25 ms. Assume that the N2 and
O2 concentrations do not change with time and reverse reactions are
unimportant over the 0.25-ms interval.
0
Gibbs free energy 𝑔̅𝑓,𝑖 @2500K
(kJ/kmol)
O 88203
O2 0

Note p0 is 1 atm rather than 3atm, because the equilibrium was based on the 1 atm
data/scenario.

The rate coefficient, k1f = 1.82 × 1011 𝑒𝑥𝑝[−38370/𝑇] m3/ (kmol-s)

Q4. A spark-ignition engine is fueled by isooctane (C8H18). 76ppm NO (dry) was measured in
an exhaust stream containing 2.3% O2. What is the NO concentration corrected to 5 percent O2?