Experimental study of the low-melting hydrocarbons regression rate in the inert gas flow

Abstract

Gasification of organic and inorganic materials in a high-temperature gas flow is a promising technology for various industrial applications like chemical industry, waste processing, rocket and air-breathing propulsion, etc. However, the characteristics of the gasification process of low-melting hydrocarbon materials remain insufficiently studied so far. The present authors propose a methodology for investigating the gasification of combustible materials for ramjets. Experiments on the gasification of cylindrical polypropylene (PP) samples by the high-temperature inert carrier gas (nitrogen) passing through multiple longitudinal channels of 3 mm in diameter and 200 mm long are performed. The flow of the carrier gas is heated by combustion of hydrogen-oxygen mixture. The temperature, pressure, and velocity of the carrier gas in the experiments range from 900 to 1700 K, 0.35 to 1.0 MPa, and 80 to 130 m/s, respectively. The yield of PP gasification products is shown to increase linearly with the carrier gas temperature. At the temperature of 1700 K, the yield of PP gasification products in the test facility attains 8.0 g/s, whereas the ratio of the mass flow rates of the carrier gas and gasification products reaches the value of 4.5.