Conversion of liquid heptane to syngas through combustion in porous media

Liquid heptane is converted to syngas in a porous inert media reactor consisting of a packed bed of alumina oxide pellets. The exhaust gases are analyzed for hydrogen, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, methane, and higher hydrocarbon concentrations over equivalence ratios ranging from 1.4 to 3.8 and a range of mixture inlet velocities. Other parameters of interest are the hydrogen and energy conversion efficiencies, carbon monoxide conversion efficiency, energy conversion efficiency, temperature measurements, reaction front propagation characteristics, soot production during burner operation, and limitations of the material properties. Various experimental values are compared to numerical results obtained from a porous media computational model. Hydrogen production increases with increasing equivalence ratio and mixture inlet velocity. However, hydrogen conversion efficiency reaches its peak value of 77% at an equivalence ratio of 3.0. Conversion efficiency increases with the mixture inlet velocity reaching peak values of 81% at a velocity of 80 cm/s for an equivalence ratio of 2.5. CO conversion efficiency peaks leaner than hydrogen conversion, and reaches values in excess of 90%.