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Branched versus linear alkane adsorption in carbonaceous slit pores

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Abstract

The presence of carbonaceous deposits on the internal surfaces of a spark ignition engine has been linked in the literature to impaired vehicle performance, as manifested by increased knocking, higher fuel consumption, higher emissions and other adverse effects. One of the proposed mechanisms, in which the deposits affect the processes in the engine, is the adsorption and desorption of fuel components in the pores within the deposit. In this article we investigate this mechanism in more detail by considering single component adsorption of normal and branched alkanes in selected model slit pores representing the structure of the deposits. We further extend these studies to the binary mixture of normal heptane and isooctane, corresponding to a primary reference fuel blend. In particular, we show that in larger pores adsorption selectivity towards isooctane is about 1.2 on average throughout the pressure range. However, in the smaller 10 Å pore selectivity towards isooctane can be in excess of three as a result of packing effects. These results are then placed in the context of engine performance issues.

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Acknowledgments

This work has made use of the resources provided by the Edinburgh Compute and Data Facility (ECDF) (http://www.ecdf.ed.ac.uk/). The ECDF is partially supported by the DIKT initiative (http://www.edikt.org.uk). The authors would like to thank Shell Global Solutions for providing the CCD and IVD samples and for funding this project. LS would also like to thank Prof. Berend Smit for an alternative simulation package used to validate simulations results for branched alkanes.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Materials and Processes, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

    A. Harrison & L. Sarkisov

  2. Shell Projects and Technology, Shell Technology Centre Thornton, Chester, UK

    R. F. Cracknell

  3. Shell Projects and Technology, Shell Global Solutions (Deutschland) GmbH, Hamburg, Germany

    J. Krueger-Venus

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  1. A. Harrison
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  2. R. F. Cracknell
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  3. J. Krueger-Venus
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  4. L. Sarkisov
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Correspondence to L. Sarkisov.

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Harrison, A., Cracknell, R.F., Krueger-Venus, J. et al. Branched versus linear alkane adsorption in carbonaceous slit pores. Adsorption 20, 427–437 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10450-013-9589-1

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