A Reduced Kinetic Mechanism for the Combustion of n‑Butanol

A reduced chemical mechanism for modeling the combustion of n-butanol in air, including low temperature ignition phenomena, was obtained in the present work. To this end, only 14 chemical-kinetic reactions and six chemical species were included to a short base mechanism (the so-called San Diego mechanism). Two important features of the reaction of the hydroxybutyl radical C4H8OH-1 radical with molecular oxygen involve a path competition of low and high-temperature reactions, and low total available heat release not promoting NTC behavior. Validation of the chemical mechanism shows an excellent agreement against experimental data of laminar flame velocities, ignition delay times, and jet stirred reactors. These numerical results confirm that this reduced mechanism can be used instead of larger mechanisms, particularly when computing-time is an important fact to be considered for modeling practical combustion systems.