An experimental and modeling investigation of the combustion of anisole and guaiacol

Anisole and guaiacol are both used as surrogates for lignin-derived biofuel. However, while the oxidation reaction mechanisms of anisole can be validated against a large set of experimental data, experimental measurements and models for guaiacol are limited. In this context, in addition to measuring adiabatic laminar burning velocities of both fuels using a flat flame burner, the oxidation of guaiacol was investigated at temperatures between 600 and 925 K. A near-atmospheric pressure jet–stirred reactor was used for three equivalence ratios (0.5, 1 and 2) with a high helium dilution. The experiments yielded mole fractions of 22 reaction products, among which two new species, benzodioxole and benzodioxole-2-one, were identified. All the measurements made in this work, along with extensive literature data on anisole, were compared with the predictions of a newly developed kinetic model. A good agreement was found between kinetic modeling and experiments, showing improved prediction for some species relative to the existing literature guaiacol oxidation models. Flowrate analyses are also discussed both in flames and in the jet-stirred reactor, especially focusing on the formation of the newly detected products.