Adiabatic Flame Temperature for Combustion of Methane with a Diluent Gas Present

by Rebeca Pupo

Submitted : Spring 2012

This project calculated the adiabatic flame temperature (the temperature produced when all of the energy liberated by the reactants goes into heating the products with no heat loss to the external environment) of a mixture of methane and oxygen in the presence of a diluent gas, nitrogen. Because nitrogen does not participate in the combustion reaction occurring between methane and oxygen, it does not provide any energy to the resulting mixture and instead absorbs some of the heat produced to reduce the overall adiabatic flame temperature of the mixture. The adiabatic flame temperatures for mole fractions of methane were evaluated for several constant amounts of nitrogen present. Based on the results obtained, it was apparent that the larger the amount of nitrogen present, the lower the adiabatic flame temperature. Additionally, the highest adiabatic flame temperature for each constant amount of nitrogen present occurred when the same ratio of methane to oxygen was available.

[ Back ]