Study of Diethyl Ether Oxidation Kinetics by Using a Supercritical Pressure Jet-stirred Reactor up to 100 atm

The growing demand of efficient and clean propulsion systems has sparked an interest in understanding the low temperature combustion of alternative fuels under high pressure conditions. Diethyl ether (DEE) is a potential alternative biofuel, for being used in blend with conventional fuels in internal combustion engines. DEE oxidations are studied at 10 and 100 atm, over a temperature range of 400-900 K, at fuel lean, stoichiometric, and rich conditions by using a supercritical pressure jet-stirred reactor (SP-JSR). Experimental data shows that DEE is very reactive and exhibits an unusual oxidation behavior with two negative temperature coefficient (NTC) zones. Furthermore, a weaker NTC behavior is observed at 100 atm and the intermediate temperature oxidation is shifted to lower temperature at 100 atm. The existing DEE model in literature well-predicts the experimental data at low temperature; however, it underpredicts the fuel consumptions at intermediate temperature. The H2/O2 subset in the existing DEE model is updated in this study based on the Princeton updated HP-Mech. The updated model improves the overall predictability, especially at intermediate temperature.