Thermal changes which take place on the

combustion of a fuel-hence we must look at the

thermodynamics of the combustion process.

The Combustion Process - The basic
combustion process can be described by the
fuel (the hydrocarbon) plus oxydizer (air or
oxygen) called the Reactants, which undergo a
chemical process while releasing heat to form
the Products of combustion
The minimum amount of air which will allow the complete
combustion of the fuel is called the Theoretical Air
(Stoichiometric Air).

A complete combustion is a process of burning
- all the carbon (C) to (CO
2
),
- all the hydrogen (H) to (H
2
O) and
- all the sulphur (S) to (SO
2
).

- With unburned components in the exhaust gas, such as C,
H2, CO, the combustion process is incomplete and not
stoichiometric.



If we supply less than theoretical air then the products
could include carbon monoxide (CO), thus it is normal
practice to supply more than theoretical air to prevent
this occurrence. This Excess Air will result in oxygen
appearing in the products.

To avoid inefficient and unsafe conditions boilers
normally operate at an excess air level.

The standard measure of the amount of air used in a
combustion process is the Air-Fuel Ratio (AF), defined
as follows: = Mair / Mf


CH
4
+ 2 (O
2
+ 3.76 N
2
) -> CO
2
+ 2 H
2
O + 7.52 N
2


The chemical equation for methane burned with 25% excess air
can be expressed as

CH
4
+ 1.25 x 2 (O
2
+ 3.76 N
2
) -> CO
2
+ 2 H
2
O + 0.5 O
2
+ 9.4 N
2


An adiabatic process in which no heat is
released. This results in a significant
temperature increase in the products of
combustion (denoted the Adiabatic Flame
Temperature)