A Kinetic Monte Carlo Simulation on Forced Oscillations of Methane Partial Oxidation

To control the kinetic oscillations for the purpose of obtaining a high conversion rate, external forcing of methane oxidation on metal catalysts was studied with kinetic Monte Carlo simulations. The influence of composition cycling of the feed on the dynamics and conversion rate was investigated. The results showed that the composition cycling of feed cannot give rise to different kinetic behavior, such as short periods or double-peaks, but does bring about a higher conversion rate. It was shown that with forcing periods from T/3 to 2T (T is the average period of autonomous oscillations), the oscillations changed from short periods and small amplitudes to typical double-peak oscillations. The conversion rate can also be calculated, and the results showed that the mean conversion was slightly higher with forced oscillations. The changing of the kinetics can be attributed to phase transition of the metal catalysts from the oxidized surface to a partially reduced state.