Kinetics modeling and main reaction schemes for the supercritical water gasification of methanol

The aim of this work is to model the supercritical water gasification (SCWG) of methanol by means of a detailed kinetics model based on elementary reactions. The challenge consists in modeling SCWG by using existing models developed for combustion or supercritical water oxidation (SCWO) and adjusting their initial conditions to make them suitable for SCWG. To this purpose, three models (GRI-Mech 3.0, Brock and Savage and Webley and Tester) were selected, implemented in MatLab® and run. Webley and Tester’s model seems to describe quite well methanol conversion as a function of time. On the other hand, some mechanisms, like water–gas shift and methanation, are not correctly predicted. The main reaction pathways are identified and outlined.