Pyrolysis of Fuels to Absorb Heat before Combustion

Endothermicity of pyrolysis is being studied as a way to absorb heat generated on the wings of high-Mach-number aircraft. The resulting products have higher chemical energy as a bonus. The caveat is that no coke can be generated. If radicals persist, coke formation is expected to be likely, so short chain-propagation lengths are desirable. In the present work, hydrocarbon model compounds, JP-8, and JP-10 are pyrolyzed in a pressurized flow-tube reactor, and the products are sampled and analyzed by molecular-beam mass spectrometry. Overall kinetics are measured for fuel conversion and intermediate and product formation, and these results are compared to elementary-reaction models.