A Generalized Chemical Balance Analysis Tool for Combustion and Catalytic Reactions

Chemical balance analysis between two points such as engine intake and exhaust is widely used to compute air fuel ratio (AFR) from exhaust gas component measurements. The same set of equations can also be used in many other ways depending on the set of known and unknown variables. Balance analysis can be used across a catalyst, for example, or if the AFR is known it can be used to estimate the unknown concentration of a given gas component. Current chemical balance analysis programs do not have this flexibility. Indeed it is often even necessary to modify the underlying code depending upon whether the measured gas concentrations are sampled dry or wet. This paper describes a highly flexible and user-friendly program developed in the Matlab environment for performing chemical balance analysis between gases entering and leaving a reaction system.