[Stoves] Re Alexis Belonio article

[AJH]

On Fri, 06 Apr 2007 17:56:08 -0500, Robert Penn Taylor wrote:

>
>The equation Hugh gives looks like a one-step forward reaction rate of 
>CO to CO2.  There's no nitrogen involved because this rate equation only 
>describes the reaction:
>
>CO + OH --> CO2 + H
>
>where OH is created (I assume) via:
>
>O + H2O --> OH + OH
>
>These two reactions can be written as a single reaction:
>
>2 CO + H2O + O --> 2 CO2 + 2 H
>
>and by dividing stoichiometric coefficients to remove the 2 in front of 
>CO we get the form:
>
>CO + 0.5 H2O + 0.25 O2 --> CO2 + H
>
>As Hugh mentioned, the terms [CO], [O2], etc in the expression for 
>forward reaction rate are the molar concentrations of the respective 
>chemical species.  The exponents on these terms come directly from the 
>stoichiometry of the reaction, so [CO] gets an exponent of 1, [H2O] gets 
>an exponent of 0.5, and [O2] gets an exponent of 0.25.  The remainder of 
>the equation is an Arrhenius expression for the rate constant associated 
>with this combined reaction.
>
>--Penn Taylor


Thanks Penn, part of my continuing education. So it shows how water
can be involved in the CO to CO2 reaction but does it say anything
about whether this creates favourable conditions over and above the
simple 2CO+O2 reaction? Of course when burning wood there will always
be some H2O present.

AJH