Unimolecular decomposition reactions of 2-Phenylethyl phenyl ether

FUEL 163

Mark W. Jarvis, mark_jarvis@colorado.edu1, John W. Daily1, Hans-Heinrich Carstensen, hcarsten@mines.edu2, Anthony M. Dean, amdean@mines.edu2, and Mark R. Nimlos, mark_nimlos@nrel.gov3. (1) Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Colorado-Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309, (2) Chemical Engineering Dept, Colorado School of Mines, 1613 Illinois St., Golden, CO 80401, (3) National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 1617 Cole Boulevard, Golden, CO 80401
We investigated the gas phase pyrolysis of 2-phenylethyl phenyl ether (PPE) in a hyper-thermal nozzle from 300 to 1300 °C. The work is motivated by a desire to understand the formation of tars during the biomass gasification. Klein and Virk (Klein, M. T. and P. S. Virk (1981). Modeling of Lignin Thermolysis. MIT Report. EL: 77-88) first proposed PPE as a model compound for the dominant β–O-4 aryl linkage in lignin. Several groups have studied the liquid and gas phase reactions of PPE, but at lower temperatures and longer residence times than we report here. Pyrolysis products are generated in 20 to 60 μs, so the primary unimolecular decomposition products may be detected experimentally. Computational methods are also employed to calculate relative reaction rates between possible decomposition schemes and to aide in the analysis of the experimental results.
 

Clean Energy, Fuels and Chemicals from Biomass
1:45 PM-4:35 PM, Tuesday, April 8, 2008 Morial Convention Center -- Rm. 239, Oral

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Division of Fuel Chemistry

The 235th ACS National Meeting, New Orleans, LA, April 6-10, 2008