Experimental and Detailed Kinetic Modeling Study of Ethyl Pentanoate (Ethyl Valerate) Oxidation in a Jet Stirred Reactor and Laminar Burning Velocities in a Spherical Combustion Chamber

To improve our understanding of the combustion characteristics
of ethyl pentanoate, a possible second generation biofuel, new experimental
data were acquired for its oxidation kinetics in two complementary
experiments. In a JSR (jet stirred reactor), concentration profiles
of stable species were measured at 10 atm over a range of conditions
(equivalence ratios of 0.6, 1, 2, fuel initial concentration of 1000
ppm, and temperatures between 560 to 1160 K). In a spherical combustion
chamber, unstretched laminar burning velocities of ethyl pentanoate–air
mixtures were measured at different pressures and temperatures and
for equivalence ratios in the range 0.7–1.4. The oxidation
of ethyl pentanoate was modeled using a new detailed kinetic reaction
scheme (2719 reactions, 522 species). The chemical kinetic mechanism
proposed here yielded good agreement with the present data. To interpret
the results, reactions flux and sensitivity analyses were carried
out.