Experimental and modeling study of the oxidation of toluene

This paper describes an experimental and modeling study of the oxidation of toluene. The low-temperature oxidation was studied in a continuous flow stirred tank reactor with carbon-containing products analyzed by gas chromatography under the following experimental conditions: temperature from 873 to 923 K, 1 bar, fuel equivalence ratios from 0.45 to 0.91, concentrations of toluene from 1.4 to 1.7%, and residence times ranging from 2 to 13 s corresponding to toluene conversion from 5 to 85%. The ignition delays of toluene-oxygen-argon mixtures with fuel equivalence ratios from 0.5 to 3 were measured behind reflected shock waves for temperatures from 1305 to 1795 K and at a pressure of 8.7 +/- 0.7 bar. A detailed kinetic mechanism has been proposed to reproduce our experimental results, as well as some literature data obtained in other shock tubes and in a plug flow reactor. The main reaction paths have been determined by sensitivity and flux analyses. (C) 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.