Studies on the oxidation of propylene in explosion peninsula

Abstract

The oxidation of propylene has been examined in the explosion peninsula at the temperatures of 580 and 626℃ for the mixtures of 8.5 and 20% propylene with oxygen respectively by gas chromatographic analysis. During the induction period, most of propylene has reacted to produce a large amount of carbon monoxide and small amounts of methane, ethylene and carbon dioxide. The decomposition of pure propylene has also been examined at 626℃, the result of which shows that only 15% of methane and ethylene produced by the oxidation reaction are formed by the decomposition reaction. In the explosion peninsula, it is demonstrated that most of propylene is oxidized to carbon monoxide by slow reaction and this plays the main role to cause ignition.