Destruction of Oxygenate/Odor Formation in a High Temperature Flat Flame Burner

As a group of diesel engine exhaust products, oxygenates have been found primarily responsible for the characteristic exhaust odor. In diesel combustion systems, it is thought that oxygenates are produced in too-lean-to-burn regions and are subsequently destroyed in the high temperature flame regions. In order to study these destruction processes, n-dodecane/oxygen/inert gas mixtures have been burned in a high temperature premixed, prevaporized, one-dimensional, laminar flat flame burner. The rate of decay of oxygenates along the axis of the burner in the reaction zone and in the post flame zone has been measured and followed. An empirical relationship describing the rate of decay of oxygenates as rate = −k(T) [oxygenates]^a[O₂]^b has been derived. The reaction orders, a and b, have been found to be 0.91 ± 0.06 and 1.44 ± 0.05, respectively. The rate constant has Arrhenius parameters E = 23.95 ± 5.77 kcal/mol and log₁₀ A = 10.98 ± 1.56, where the units for A are discussed in the text.