Thermal Imaging To Visualize and Characterize Combustion Fronts in Porous Media

• Published in: Industrial & engineering chemistry research Vol. 59; no. 5; pp. 2181 - 2191
• Main Authors: Koh Yoo, Kuy Hun, Sampaio, Luiz Eduardo Bittencourt, Amanam, Usua U, Gerritsen, Margot, Kovscek, Anthony R
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: American Chemical Society 05.02.2020
• ISSN: 0888-5885; 1520-5045
• DOI: 10.1021/acs.iecr.9b05737

We developed a novel technique based upon time-lapse infrared (IR) images to relate the effects of crude-oil oxidation kinetics on flow during one-dimensional homogeneous and heterogeneous laboratory-scale combustion tube experiments. We performed combustion tube experiments under variable conditions including different sands (i.e., grain-size distribution), air injection rate history (constant versus variable), degree of packing heterogeneity, and reaction heterogeneity. The latter is achieved by using reaction enhancing nanoparticles in controlled packing configurations. During every experiment, we obtain high-resolution IR images of the outer wall of the combustion tube that we calibrate using point-wise temperature measurements from a thermocouple. Here, a new experimental workflow that uses these images and combines knowledge obtained from kinetic cell experiments is used to isolate the spatial zones within the tube where so-called low-temperature and high-temperature oxidation (pseudoreaction regimes) occurs during combustion tube experiments for the first time. Additionally, the IR imaging technique is shown to provide new insight into the propagation of the combustion front in homogeneous and heterogeneous systems and, importantly, visualizes gravity drainage of hot oil.