SIMPLIFIED CATALYTIC COMBUSTION MECHANISMS FOR BUTANE-AIR MIXTURE ON PLATINUM SURFACE

Abstract

Catalytic combustion on platinum surface is one of the energy sources for portable power generator applications. The combustion mechanisms and reaction rate have been studied by various research groups, but detailed combustion mechanisms still require a large amount of computing power. Simplified combustion mechanisms have been introduced in this study to estimate reaction rate and products from catalytic combustion. The mechanisms have been chosen based on the main reaction path. 2D and 3D simulations in ANSYS-Fluent have been studied to validate simplified combustion mechanisms with detailed combustion mechanisms and to observe the surface coverage of carbon monoxide, vacant sites and oxygen. Results show that simplified combustion mechanisms can be used to estimate reaction rate and products from combustion with reasonable surface coverage species by reducing the number of reaction mechanisms; however, simulation results are slightly off at high temperature. These simplified combustion mechanisms are useful when computational power is insufficient.