부산대학교 도서관

Dimethyl carbonate (DMC) has been of interest as an oxygenate additive to diesel fuel because of its high oxygen content. In this study, a chemical kinetic mechanism for DMC was developed for the first time and used to understand its combustion under conditions in an opposed flow diffusion flame. Computed results were compared to experimental results from an opposed flow diffusion flame. It was found that the decomposition rate DMC {yields} H{sub 3}COC(=O)O. + CH{sub 3} in the flame was much slower than originally thought because resonance stabilization in the H{sub 3}COC(=O)O. radical was less than expected. Also, a new molecular elimination path for DMC is proposed and its rate calculated by quantum chemical methods. In the simulations of DMC in the flame, it was determined that much of the oxygen in dimethyl carbonate goes directly to CO{sub 2}. This characteristic indicates that DMC would not be an effective oxygenate additive for reducing soot emissions from diesel engines. In an ideal oxygenate additive for diesel fuel, each oxygen atom stays bonded to one carbon atom in the products thereby preventing the formation of carbon-carbon bonds that can lead to soot. When CO2 is formed directly, two oxygen atoms are bonded to one carbon atom thereby wasting one oxygen atom in the oxygenate additive. To determine how much CO{sub 2} is formed directly, the branching ratio of the key reaction, CH{sub 3}OC.=O going to the products CH{sub 3} + CO{sub 2} or CH{sub 3}O + CO was determined by ab initio methods. The A-factors of the rate constant of this reaction were found to be about 20 times higher than previous factors estimates. The new reaction rate constants obtained can be used as reaction rate rules for all oxygenates that contain the ester moiety including biodiesel.