Synthetic fuel aromaticity and staged combustion

Samples of middle and heavy SRC-II distillates were distilled into 50 C boiling point range fractions. These were characterized by measurements of their molecular weight, elemental analysis and basic nitrogen content and calculation of average molecular structures. The structures typically consisted of 1 to 3 aromatic rings fused to alicyclic rings with short, 1 to 3 carbon aliphatic side chains. The lower boiling fractions contained significant amounts (1 atom/molecule) of oxygen while the heavier fractions contained so few heteroatoms that they were essentially hydrocarbons. Laboratory scale oxidative-pyrolysis experiments were carried out at pyrolysis temperatures of 500 to 1100 C and oxygen concentrations from 0 to 100 percent of stoichiometry. Analysis of liquid products, collected in condensers cooled with liquid nitrogen showed that aromatization is a major reaction in the absence of oxygen. The oxygen-containing materials (phenolics) seem to be more resistant to thermal pyrolysis than unsubstituted aromatics. Nitrogen converts from basic to nonbasic forms at about 500 C. The nonbasic nitrogen is more stable and survives up to 700 C after which it is slowly removed. A recently constructed 50,000 Btu/hr staged combustor was used to study the chemistry of the nitrogen and aromatics. SRC II combustion was studied under fuel-rich, first-stage conditions at air/fuel ratios from 0.6 to 1.0 times stoichiometric. The chemistry of the fuel during combustion calls for further investigation in order to examine the mechanism by which HCN is evolved as a common intermediate for the formation of the nitrogen-containing gaseous combustion products. 25 references, 45 figures, 25 tables