Fossil Fuels

K.C. Yadav, AVP,

Noida Technical Training Centre
Contents
 Definition, type and resources
 Analysis of combustibles and impurities
 Heating value
 Combustion character
 Tariff

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 Definition
Chemical Fuels can loosely be defined as the
substances, containing the significant quantities of
the elements, which oxidize exothermally
 The fuel elements essential involve in exothermic reaction
but all the element involve in exothermic reaction are not
essentially fuel elements.
 Fossil fuels essentially contain hydrogen and carbon but all
the substance contain hydrogen and carbon are not
essentially fossil fuels

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Definition
Fossil fuels may be defined as the
remains of plants and animal, preserved
from an earlier era inside a rock or other
geological deposit.
In other words fossil fuels are energy rich
substances that have formed from long
buried plants and micro-organisms

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Classification
 Gaseous Fuels
 Liquid Fuels

 Solid Fuels

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Gaseous Fuels
 Natural Gas (CNG & LPG)
 Men made gaseous fuels (Coal Gas, Producer Gas, Biogas)

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Liquid Fuels
 Aviation Fuel
 Kerosene
 Petrol
 Diesel
 LSHS
 Heavy Fuel Oils
 Non conventional (non fossil) fuels

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Solid Fuels

 Coal
 Crude oil residue
 Non fossil fuels (Biomass, Industrial
Residue, Animal Dung)

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 Coal
Coal is a mixture of the degradation products
of plant and animals. It is associated with
different proportions of inorganic matter. Coal
is thus an intimate mixture of complex organic
mass and inorganic matter.
Coal is also known as combustion organic
rock composed of primarily of carbon,
hydrogen and oxygen

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Chemistry of Coal
Ultimate constituents of pure coal are in
conformity with those found in plants i.e.
Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, Nitrogen,
Sulpher and other minor elements.
Carbon & Hydrogen: Real factors for heat
production. In coal carbon exists in
combination with Hydrogen or a free residual
carbon – Fixed Carbon.

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Classification of Coal

It is classified depending on the degree of coalification a guide to its

carbon content.

Type Name %VM %M(MF

basis)

Anthracite a)Antharacite 3 – 10 1–3

b)Semi-Anth. 10 - 15 1-2

Bituminous Low volatile 15 – 20 0.5 – 1.5

(caking)
MediumVol. 20 – 32 0.5 – 2
High Vol. 32+ 1–3
High Vol. 32+ 3–7
(semi-cakin)
High Vol. 32+ 7 - 14
(non-cak.)

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Classification of Coal Cont.

Type Name % VM %M(MF basis)

Sub-Bitu- Non caking 32+ 10 - 20

minous coal Slack on
weathering

Lignite or Lignite 45 - 55 10 - 15
Brown coal

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 Important Terms
• Coal Rank: The rank of coal is indicative of its maturity in the process
of coalification as adjudged by its chemical and physical parameters.
• Calorific value, Net: The Gross Calorific Value less the latent heat of
evaporation of the water originally contained in the fuel and that
formed during its combustion.
• Calorific Value, Gross: The number of heat units measured as being
liberated when unit mass of coal is burned in oxygen saturated with
water vapour in a bomb under standard condition.
• Proximate Analysis: The analysis of coal, expressed in terms of
Fixed carbon, moisture, volatile matter and ash.
• Ultimate Analysis: The analysis of coal, expressed in terms of its
carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, sulphur and oxygen contents

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 Analysis of Coal
In the power plant, Boilers are
designed based on the following
characteristics:
• Proximate Analysis
• Ultimate Analysis
• GCV
• HGI
• Fusion Behaviour of ash of coal.
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Proximate Analysis
 Proximate analysis serves a quick characterization of coal
in respect of its quality, rank and type and thus broadly
indicate its suitability for a particular mode of use.

• Moisture:- Different forms –

d) Free Moisture
e) Bed/Seam/capacity Moisture
f) Air-dried Moisture
g) Total Moisture

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 Proximate Analysis
2. Composition of Typical Ash
Constituents Formula Percentage
Silica SiO2 55-64
Alumina Al2O3 25-35
Iron Oxide Fe2O3 4-10
Calcium Oxide CaO 1.4-12
Magnesium Oxide MgO 0.4-4
Sodium Oxide Na2O 0.2-0.4
Potassium Oxide K2O 0.7-2.4
Titania TiO2 0.7-2.9
Sulfur Trioxide SO3 0.2-1.2
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Proximate Analysis
• Ash & Mineral Matters: (Previous slide)
• Volatile Matter – Responsible for flame size. It contains
mainly CO2, CO, CH4, H2, unsaturated Hydro Carbon,
Water, Tar Vapours, H2S and Ammonia, etc.
• Fixed Carbon : 100 –(A+M+VM)% - On DMF basis FC
contains carbon 97%, H2 – 0.6%, N2-1.4%, S-0.5% and
O2 – 0.5% Approx. irrespective of the rank of coal.
• Total Moisture: X+Y(1-X/100)

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Ultimate Analysis
 Analysis of coal for its elementary constituents,
carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, sulphur and oxygen
is called ultimate analysis.
 It is done to predict the extent of coalification and
weathering affect. It is important for efficiency
calculation and adjustment of air for combustion.
 From lignite to anthracite, the carbon in the pure
coal substance increases progressively.
 A weathered coal will be deficient in carbon and
hydrogen, but richer in O2 resulting in low CV.
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Gross Calorific Value
 This is the basic property of fuel indicating the quantity of
heat evolved by its complete combustion. In fact, design of
boiler is based on gross calorific value of coal. GCV is
employed to find out :
• Thermal efficiency of a combustor
• Coal equivalent of any fuel for operational and commercial
purpose.
• Coal consumption per KWH. Thus it is a quality control
parameter.
• Useful heat value of coal which has been accepted as an
index of price fixation of high moisture coal.

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Physical Chemistry of Fuel Elements

2H2 + O2 = 2H2O (W) + 143050 KJ/Kg Hydrogen

2H2 + O2 = 2H2O (S) + 121840 KJ/Kg Hydrogen
C + O2 = CO2 + 33820 KJ/Kg carbon
2C + O2 = 2CO + 10200 KJ/Kg carbon
2CO + O2 = 2CO2 + 10165 KJ/Kg CO
S + O2 = SO2 + 9304 KJ/Kg Sulfur

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Physical Chemistry of Fuel Elements
 Hydrogen is best fossil fuel. Its chemical reactivity
is very high, which makes pure hydrogen
unavailable in nature.
 Carbon is much inferior fuel element in comparison
to hydrogen and also highly reactive. Availability of
pure carbon is also poor.
 Sulfur is bad fuel element, contribute very little to
heat value and leads to hostile environment for the
combustion control system and surrounding
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Gross Calorific Value

GCV = [33820*C + 143050*(H-O/8) + 9304*S] KJ/Coal

C, H, S & O are in Kg/Kg Coal

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Net Calorific Value
 GCV determined in lab. includes the latent heat of
condensation of moist. Formed due to the presence of
Hydrogen and moisture in coal. Under conditions of boiler,
moisture formed remain in vapour form hence CV available
is lower than GCV. This is known as NCV.
 Net CV = GCV – (9H+IM) x 5.86 in Cal/g.
 Useful Heat Value:
 UHV – 8900 – 138 (A+M), where A and M represents Ash &
Moisture percent at 60% RH and 40 degree C.

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 Hard Grove Grindability Index
 HGI of coal indicates hardness, strength and its
easiness towards pulverization of coal. It is also
related to the power consumption for pulverization of
coal.
 It measures the increase of surface produced by the
application of a standard amount of work and express
the result as HGI which ranges between 20 – 100 for
most of the coals.
 HGI = 13 + 6.93 W , where W = gram of coal passing
through 200mesh after grinding of 50g of coal of size
10 – 30 mesh.
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Gradation of Coal
 For the purpose of prices, the grades of coal on the basis of
UHV are being are as under:
 Grade UHV
 A >6200
 B >5600 – 6200
 C >4940 – 5600
 D >4200 – 4940
 E >3360 – 4200
 F >2400 – 3360
 G >1300 - 2400

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Petrographic Parameters
 Organic Macerals
 Inorganic Minerals
 Moisture

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Organic Macerals
 Vitrinite
 Exenite
 Inertinite
 Associations of two/three

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Combustion behaviour
 Macerals are divided into three main groups of liptinite,
vitrinite and inertinite. Liptinite has the highest hydrogen
content and volatile matter. Its volatile matter is roughly nice
that of the associated vitrinite and as a result, liptinite has
been linked with ignitability and flame stability. The liptinite
is significant only in the pyrolysis stage of combustion, and
affects the igniting process. General influence of macerals
on combustion behaviour can be described as follows:
 The high volatile liptinite burns out rapidly.
 Vitrinite burns out at a rate that depends on its reflectance.
 Inertinite is generally, but not always, difficult to burn.
 Other factors being equal, the burnout depends on the heat
release of the coal/blends.
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Combustion Behaviour
Burnout increases with vitrinite reflectance, and decreased
with inertinite content. These factors were combined into
the MI.
 The mean vitrinite reflectance and the fuel ratio can
qualitatively predict the burnout of coal an blends,
 The maceral index, MI, correlates the burnout, and has
potential for correlating the ignitability and the flame
stability.
 There should be no burnout problems for the coals and
blends with the MI > 3, however, burnout problems are
expected for the coals and blends with the MI < 1.

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Combustion behaviour
 Minimum burner load for stable combustion rises as the fuel
ratio increases
 The conversion ratio of fuel nitrogen to NOx and unburned
carbon fraction increase almost linearly with fixed carbon,
fuel nitrogen and the fuel ratio
 Vitrinite-rich coals essentially produced highly porous chars,
the inertinite-rich coals produced large amounts of medium
and low-porous chars.
 Burnout of coal/blends depends on the amount of volatile
matter, which is quickly released from the coal

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Combustion behaviour
Characteristics of coal particle trajectories,
devolatilization, ignition time, ignition distance and
burnout of pulverized coal involves
 (i) turbulent flow and turbulent transfer process;
 (ii) coal particles motion and turbulent diffusions;
 (iii) turbulent combustion;
 (iv) evaporation, devolatilizaton and carbon
combustion;
 (v) heat transfer between gaseous particles and
the walls of furnaces
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Combustion behaviour
 Inherent mineral in coal had no evident
effect on the reactivity and kinetics of coal
pyrolysis. Some inorganic material, such as
CaO, K2CO3 and Al2O3, all had a catalytic
effect on the reactivity of coal pyrolysis, their
effects were closely related to temperature
region and coal types. Addition of inorganic
matter the activation energy decreased and
the characteristic temperature of coal
changed

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 Induction Heating
 The use of induction-heating in the ignition of pulverized coal
has many advantages over conventional technologies in
several aspects. It is easy to extend the capacity of induction-
heating, from several kilowatts to several hundred kilowatts
and being advanced technology, the induction-heating
equipments have the stable operation performance.
 The induction-heating burner is consisted of two regions:
ignition and combustion region. In the ignition region, the
temperature is lower, compared with the temperature in the
combustion region. This ensures the stable operation of the
induction-heating system, especially for alloy tube which
would be eroded at high temperature above 1200 0C.

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Coal Blending
 Pulverized coal fired power plants were originally designed
to burn a fairly narrow range of fuels. Therefore, more care
must be taken to maintain the quality of the coal going to
the power plant. Consequently, utilities use fuel
specifications based on experience (i.e. based on the
performance of coals from a single source). The coal
blending leads to the following advantages:
- Reducing fuel costs
- Controlling emission limits
- Enhancing fuel flexibility and extending the range of acceptable
coals.
- Providing a uniform product from coal of varying quality.
- Solving existing problems such as poor carbon burnout, slagging
and fouling and also improve boiler performance.

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Reduction in C & NOx in FG
 Designed burner to promote mixing near the burner by means of
recirculation flow produced by the straight motion of primary air
and the strong swirling motion of the secondary and tertiary air.
This recirculation flow lengthens the residence time to pulverized
coal particles in the high-temperature field near the burner outlet
and accelerates the evolution of volatile matte and the progress of
char reaction. Therefore, the amount of unburned carbon is
effectively reduced, but the NOx concentration increases in this
region.
 Recirculation flow is formed in the upstream high-gas-temperature
region near the burner outlet, and this lengthens the residence time of
coal particles in the high-temperature region, promotes the evolution of
volatile matter and the progress of char reaction, and produces an
extremely low-O2 zone for effective NO reduction.

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Thank you
17th May, 2008