Coking activity during supercritical hydrocarbon pyrolysis
Résumé
Hydrocarbon pyrolysis is encountered in a wide range of fuel applications (aerospace cooling system1,2, thermostructural composite fabrication by Chemical Vapor Infiltration3, steam cracking4). The operating conditions for these examples range for pressure from the atmospheric one to hundred bars and for temperature from ambient to 1500 K. Numerous experimental studies are available on hydrocarbon pyrolysis, for example for cooling purpose5,6. They mainly focus on the production and the consumption of species following various parameters, such as the mass flow rate and the operating pressure and temperature. They aim at understanding the pyrolysis process and they often try to study the pyrolysis under conditions, which limit the coke formation (temperatures lower than 1000 K, low residence time, low catalytic effect of reactor material) in order to have stable test conditions.