The logical programming approach

Ten types of elementary processes were defined, which included all the reaction types characteristic for the pyrolysis of alkanes. To speed up the process of reaction generation, five basic structural attributes were attached to each species. These attributes described the type of the species (molecule, radical), the length, the saturation, etc. The application of attributes enabled the sensible application of reaction types, since, for example, molecules do not take part in radical recombination reactions, and short radicals cannot take part in 1,4-isomerization. Where possible, rate parameters were taken from databases and others were estimated on the basis of ten rules which were applied according to the type of reaction and reaction partners. 

Most of the generated reactions were eliminated during the construction of the mechanism. The primary tool was the comparison of reaction rates for parallel reaction channels. This approach required careful planning of the order of generation of the reaction types. The program was used for the pyrolysis of C1-C4 hydrocarbons. Mechanisms for ethane, propane and butane contained 15, 49 and 76 species and 18, 115 and 179 reactions, respectively. These mechanisms were compared with schemes which had been proposed by human experts. Most of the reactions were identical, and, in general, the program proposed a superset of those presented in the literature. 

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