A Reduced Reaction Mechanism for the Simulation of Ethylene Flame

Industrial ethylene flares are a major source of highly-reactive VOCs (HRVOCs), such as formaldehyde. HRVOCs are the pollutants responsible for the formation of more toxic pollutants, like ozone. Nevertheless, involving a large number of species and hundreds of reactions, most of the detailed kinetic mechanisms for the hydrocarbon fuels in industrial flares are very complicated. A reduced mechanism will be desirable for improving computational efficiency.

In this work, a reduced mechanism for simulating the formation of formaldehyde in ethylene flame is presented. Retaining the important features of the detailed mechanism, this reduced mechanism is able to give accurate prediction results and makes the chemistry more manageable, thereby reducing the computational effort.