SULTAN QABOOS UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING PETROLEUM AND CHEMICAL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

CHPE 4512 CHEMICAL REACTION ENGINEERING

A Final Report

THE EFFECT OF SAMPLE DIAMETER ON COMBUSTION OF WOOD

by

Muhammed Al-Efdal (ID # 33345/02) Mahmoud Al-Asli (ID # 37487/02)

The title page should have the affiliation (University, department, etc.), a short and informative title, full names of people who produced the report, to whom it is submitted, the date.

Submitted to: Prof. Mehmet A. Hastaoglu

7 January 2008

ABSTRACT

The abstract should follow the title page. It should give the major findings or conclusions. It should be very short and informative. For an 800 page book the abstract is half a page. Cylindrical wood samples were prepared with diameters ranging from 1 to 55 mm and they were burnt in air at temperatures of 490, 523 and 675 oC. The rate of combustion was followed as the advance of the position of burning measured from the cool end of the sample. It was found that the combustion rate was proportional to the square of the sample diameter. The effect of the air velocity on combustion was also found. The combustion rate was proportional to the second power of the air velocity.

Table of contents, List of Figures and List of Tables should be given here as well as the page numbers. TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract . 1 List of figures . 2 List of tables .. 2 Introduction ... 3 Background theory ..... 4 Experimental set up and procedure . 5 Sample calculations . 6 Results and discussions 6 Conclusions and recommendations ...... 9 Acknowledgments ... 9 Notation . . 10 References ... 10 Appendix . 10

LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Location of reaction vs time for sample 1 ... Figure 2. Reaction rate vs time for sample 1 ... Figure 3. Location of reaction vs time for sample 4 . Figure 4. Reaction rate vs time for sample 4 .... Figure 5. Location of reaction vs time for sample 7 .. Figure 6. Reaction rate vs time for sample 7 .... 8 8 8 8 8 8

LIST OF TABLES Table 1. The diameters and lengths of wood samples . 6 Table 2. Initial and average rates of samples 1, 4, 7 and 10 .. 7 Table 3. Reaction front and rate as functions of time for samples 1 and 4 . 7 Table 4. Reaction front and rate as functions of time for samples 7 and 10 . 7

INTRODUCTION The report should be started with an introduction to the subject and report contents. This is also a preparation for the sections to follow. Combustion of wood is important as it represents a complex set of heat, momentum and mass transfer operations. There are also many chemical reactions involved in the combustion. Although wood combustion is simple and is carried out in most households or picnic barbecues it is one of the most complex engineering operations. It can be used as a preliminary study for important industrial chemical operations such as hydrodesulfurization, catalytic cracking, and carbon gasification. During combustion the wood is heated initially from an external source such as other wood burning. The temperature in wood rises and in the mean time the loose water evaporates. The pressure in the wood rises due to evaporation and vapor starts escaping outward. As the wood becomes hotter the combustion temperature is approached and it starts burning wherever there is oxygen. Some of the chemical compounds forming the wood start pyrolyzing and burning. At high temperatures these compounds partly are broken down to smaller chemical compounds such as methane, leaving behind ash and char. Thus the structure of the wood starts changing. The pressure in the wood increases to such amounts that the wood cells start exploding which is also accompanied by combustion. The sound of wood during burning is an indication of these structural changes. In this report the effect of wood sample diameter on the combustion rate will be presented with some theoretical background.

BACKGROUND/THEORY Background information and/or theory should be given in this section. Equations, development, major references should be explained here. In the combustion process of the wood heat and mass are required to transfer to the surface of the wood. These processes are affected by the shape of the solid sample and the properties of the gases (combustion product air mixture blowing by the sample). Reynolds, Prandtl, and Schmidt numbers, which are dimensionless numbers, play important role in the transfer of heat and mass to the sample surface. These numbers care used to find Nusselt numbers for heat and mass transfer using the correlations below (Chilton and Colburn, 1934) Equations should be expressed in terms of symbols. They should be numbered consecutively flush to the right.

Nu = Nu = Nu = Nu =

2.06 Re 0.425 Sc 1 / 3

20.4 Re 0.185 Sc 1 / 3

Sc 168, Re 5000 Sc 168, Re 5000 Sc 168, Re 55 Sc 168, Re 55

(1) (2) (3) (4)

1.09 Re1 / 3 Sc 1 / 3

0.25 Re 0.69 Sc 1 / 3

Nu for mass transfer is calculated form the equations above. On the other hand Nu for heat transfer is calculated by replacing Sc by Pr in the equations above. Where Sc is replaced by Pr for heat transfer to find Nu. These correlations provide very reliable means for evaluating heat and mass transfer coefficients using Nu. The shape of the sample comes into consideration in two different ways: one is through the calculation of Re. For each shape there is a different effective Re. The second one is through the consideration of the transport process. Mass and heat transfer equations are written differently for each shape of the wood sample (Peters and Timmerhaus, 1991). From the explanation above it may be possible to find a correlation where the rate of combustion is found as a function of the sample diameter as Rcomb = F(Dp) (5)

where Rcomb is the rate of combustion, Dp is the sample diameter, L is the sample length, t is time V is sample volume, and is sample density. In the following section the effects of the sample diameter and the air velocity on the combustion rate are studied. EXPERIMENTAL SET UP AND PROCEDURES (If there is experimental part) Experimental set up and procedures are explained here. Materials, equipment and steps to be followed should be explained. A schematic diagram of the experimental setup would also be helpful. The type of equipment and information about the chemicals should be supplied in this section. There were five sets of experiments carried out in order to measure the effects of various parameters on wood combustion. The set of equipment and procedure are given below. EQUIPMENT Experimental equipment consists of the following. Cylindrical wood samples Caliper

High temperature furnace Compressed air gun Flowmeter Compressed air cylinder Thermocouple Temperature indicator Electric drill Steel measuring tape Steel tongue Thermal gloves Safety glasses Bucket of water Hood Fire extinguisher (as safety precaution). PROCEDURES The experimental procedures were as following. Wood samples with a range of diameters are prepared in the carpentry shop. The diameters and lengths are measured with a caliper and recorded. Steel tape is placed in the furnace. The furnace is heated to the desired temperature. The wood sample is drilled 1 mm holes to the center. The thermocouple is inserted into the hole. Air valve is opened and a predetermined of air flow is allowed through the rotameter. Air gun is directed into the furnace and the sample is placed in front of the air gun. The time is recorded. At certain intervals the temperatures are recorded. The appearance of flame and progress of the flame front is followed using the steel measuring tape. The time is recorded as well for each occurrence. Upon progress of the combustion to the extent desired the sample is taken out and quenched in water. The sample is studied externally and, after breaking, internal appearance is noted.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS The results obtained should be demonstrated through tables and figures. Important points, findings, or problems should also be critically discussed here. There may be success or failure during the work. They should be discussed here. The physical measurements before the experiment are given in Table 1. Four groups of samples were prepared with average diameters of 0.0055, 0.0121, 0.0216, and 0.0424 m. The samples lengths were between 0.212 and 0.219 m. Format of tables: Table caption should be placed at the top of the table. It should start with a table number and give a brief content of the table. The columns or rows should have titles and necessary units such as, sample length, m.

Table 1. The diameters and lengths of wood samples. Sample Number 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 D, m 0.0055 0.0052 0.0058 0.0125 0.0121 0.0117 0.0212 0.0217 0.0219 0.0422 0.0429 0.0421 Length, m 0.212 0.218 0.219 0.215 0.216 0.219 0.214 0.212 0.215 0.217 0.214 0.218

The position where the combustion takes place is shown as a function of time in Figure 1 for sample 1. The rate was calculated by approximating the derivative of the reaction location as dZ Z i 1 Z i (6) = = R comb dt t t i +1 i Table 2. Initial and average rates of samples 1, 4, 7 and 10. Dp, m 0.0055 0.0125 0.0212 0.0422 Initial rate, m/s 0.00092 0.00125 0.00093 0.00039 Average rate, m/s 0.00141 0.00118 0.00069 0.00057

Table 3. Reaction front and rate as functions of time for samples 1 and 4. Sample 1 t,s z, m Rate m/s 0 0.212 0.00092 5 0.205 0.00092 12 0.19 0.00214 24 0.17 0.00167 45 0.11 0.00286 77 0.08 0.00094 101 0.07 0.00042 Average rate = 0.00141 Sample 4 t,s z, m Rate m/s 0 0.215 0.00125 12 0.2 0.00125 25 0.18 0.00154 38 0.16 0.00154 66 0.15 0.00036 76 0.13 0.00200 110 0.12 0.00029 Average rate = 0.00118

Table 4. Reaction front and rate as functions of time for samples 7 and 10. Sample 7 Sample 10 t,s z, m Rate m/s t,s z, m Rate m/s 0 0.214 0.00093 0 0.217 0.00039 15 0.2 0.00093 18 0.21 0.00039 27 0.19 0.00083 27 0.199 0.00122 40 0.18 0.00077 43 0.185 0.00088 65 0.17 0.00040 65 0.178 0.00032 79 0.16 0.00071 81 0.17 0.00050 112 0.15 0.00030 110 0.162 0.00027 Average rate = 0.00070 Average rate = 0.00057

Figures should be drawn neatly. The figure captions should be placed at the bottom of the figure and they should be short and informative. The axes should be labeled and units should be shown. If necessary, legends showing what each line represents should be given shortly.

reaction front, m

0.2 0.003 Reaction rate, m/s

0.1

0.002

0 0 50
Time, s

0.001

100

0 0

Time, s

50

100

Figure 1. Location of reaction versus time for sample 1.

Figure 2. Reaction rate versus time for sample 1.

0.003

Reaction location, m

0.2

Reaction position, m

0.002

0.1

0.001

0
0 0
Time, s

0
50 100

50

Time

100

Figure 3. Reaction location versus time (sample 4)

Figure 4. Reaction rate versus time for sample 4.

0.25 0.2
Reaction location, m

0.0012

Reaction location, m

0.15 0.1 0.05 0 0 50

0.0008

0.0004

Time, s 100

0 0 50
Time, s

100

Figure 5. Reaction location versus time for sample 7.

Figure 6. Reaction rate versus time for sample 7.

The rate was plotted against the time as shown in Figure 2. In a similar manner similar plots are generated for samples 4, 7, and 10. As shown in Figures 3-8. The rates do not follow a monotonous trend. This may be due to the fact that wood breaks up during the combustion generating more surface area for combustion. This is why we see rate increasing suddenly in Figures 2, 4, and 8. Also note that the way air supplied plays important role on the combustion rate. Uniform air supply was not possible and samples were not fixed firmly in the furnace. To see the effect of the sample diameter the initial rates of samples 1, 3, 7, and 10 were plotted against the sample diameter. We were not able to fit an equation successfully using Excel program. Straight line, polynomial, power, and exponential forms were tried. The best among them was a second order equation as shown in the lower part of Figure 9. The method of using the initial rates apparently was not acceptable due to poor fit of the experimental and polynomial curves. A second type of fit was tried using the average rates, not the initial rates. The results are shown in Figure 10. Although the line representing the data is not smooth, a second order representation by a polynomial produced nice and smooth result. Note that the initial rates had lead to second order term with a negative sign (-0.952x2) which is not acceptable. On the other hand the average rates lead to a second order term with a positive sign (0.9469x2) which is more acceptable. The effect of the air velocity was observed by changing the air flow rate. The air control was not adequate but it was roughly found that reaction rate was proportional to 1.2 power of the air flow rate.

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Major findings should be given in the conclusions. Recommendations to improve the problems or further the research etc. should be given here. The following were concluded from this study. The sample diameter in the wood combustion in air affects the combustion rate. Rate is a second order function of the

sample diameter. The breaking of the wood samples during combustion enhances the rate. The following are recommended. 1. The wood samples should be fixed in the furnace. 2. Air should be fed to the furnace uniformly. 3. The distance measurements in the furnace are not accurate as the steel measuring tape becomes longer at high temperature and should not be used as a measuring instrument. 4. The readings of the data should be recorded directly to computer. 5. The samples should be uniform and from a known source. 6. The safety measures should be increased. Acknowledgments: We thank the Petroleum and Chemical Laboratory technician, Mr. Muhammed Al-Khalil for his suggestions during the experiment. We also acknowledge the Sultan Qaboos University for the transportation supplied for a site visit.

NOTATION The symbols used in the formulae, figures or the text should be listed here with the relevant units. Dp Rcomb Z T Re Pr Nu Sc sample diameter, m combustion rate, m/s combustion location, m time, s Reynolds number Prandtl number Nusselt number for heat (Nuh) or mass (Num) transfer Schmidt number

REFERENCES
The references should be given here with the necessary names, titles, source, date, (volume) issue, and the publisher. Do not write any reference which is not cited in the main report

Two styles: If style 1 is followed, the citation within the text could be Peters and Timmerhaus (1991) have reported. Peters, M. S. and Timmerhaus, K. D., Plant Design and Economics for Chemical Engineers, 4th edition, Chapters 14-16. McGraw-Hill, Singapore, 1991. If style 2 is followed, the citation within the text could be Chilton et al1 have reported. 1) Chilton, T. H., Hasan, M. A. and Colburn, A. P., 1934, Ind. Eng. Chem. 26, p. 1183.
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APPENDIX
Appendix should start on a new page. All the relevant but extra material should be given here. These could be calculations, extra tables, blue prints of equipment, physical or chemical information about materials used, etc.

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