Cracking of Hydrocarbon Fuel Under Supercritical Environment: A Feasibility Study

Abstract

Hypersonic air-breathing vehicles travel at high speeds and generate heat loads that are greater than can be met from sensible heating of the fuel. The objective of this investigation is to identify a suitable hydrocarbon fuel that can reduce the required temperatures in a hypersonic aircraft heat exchanger/reactor. An experimental setup was designed to investigate the cracking heat sink capacity of hydrocarbon fuel under supercritical temperature and pressure. A hydrocarbon fuel of boiling range 167 to 220 °C was considered as a model fuel for the present study. The effects of reactor temperature on cracking performances, product compositions, and endothermic heat sink capacity were examined. The study shows that the fuel can offer a chemical heat sink capacity value of around 700 kJ/kg of fuel at 700 °C and 40 bar pressure. The coke propensity and gas formation increased with the increase of temperature.

Keywords: thermal cracking, endothermic heat sink, hydrocarbon fuel, coke formation