Hydrocarbon
emissions from natural gas engines
A
summary of research during the Ph.D. study of Anders Broe Bendtsen
Natural gas engines are a widespread method for heat and power
co-generation. They do, however, have a significant emission of methane, which
is a potent green house gas. Little is known about the post cylinder processes,
and therefore this project has set out to analyse the chemistry of methane
oxidation at moderate temperatures. The development of new models has included
a novel and fruitful interaction between conventional chemical engineering
methods and a chemometrics approach.
A chemometric investigation of pilot scale engine results has shown that
an interaction between NOx and CH4 oxidation exists. This
result was confirmed by laboratory experiments, but could not be described
satisfactorily by existing kinetic models. (See poster)
Based on an existing reaction set the reaction mechanism behind NOx
enhanced methane oxidation was studied. (See poster)
During this study new visualization techniques were developed which help
identifying the important reaction paths in a reaction mechanism. These
visualization techniques were based on scaling of sensitivity coefficients,
principal component analysis of rate of production matrices and automatic
generation of pathway plots. (Download program)
With the aid of these visualization tools a detailed chemical kinetics
model was developed which was able to describe the phenomena observed in the
laboratory experiments. This model has also been used to describe pilot scale
experiments.
To discuss the thesis
e-mail the author Anders Broe Bendtsen, andbbdk@gmail.com
To request a copy of the
thesis e-mail CHEC, chec@kt.dtu.dk
Publications
prepared during the study:
Bendtsen
A.B., & P. Glarborg. (1998) Prediction of Reaction Rate Constants. 55‑60.
Fashioning a Model: Optimization Methods in Chemical Physics. Durham,UK
Bendtsen
A.B., P. Glarborg, & K. Dam‑Johansen. (1998)
Chemometric Analysis of a Detailed Chemical Reaction
Mechanism for Methane Oxidation. Chemom.Intell.Lab.Syst.
44, 357‑365
Bendtsen
A.B., P. Glarborg, & K. Dam‑Johansen. (2000) Low temperature oxidation of
methane: The influence of nitrogen oxides. Combust. Sci. and Tech. 151,
31-71
Glarborg
P., A.B. Bendtsen, & J.A. Miller. (1999) Nitromethane dissociation. Implications for the CH3+NO2
reaction. Int.J.Chem.Kin. 31,
591-602
Bendtsen
A.B., P. Glarborg, & K. Dam‑Johansen. (2001) Visualization methods in analysis of detailed chemical kinetics
modelling. Comp.Chem. 25, 161
Author Anders Broe Bendtsen, andbbdk@gmail.com
Last updated: February 19th 2001