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Fuel characteristics

Fuel & Combustion


2/2006
Dr. Suneerat Pipatmanomai
Fuel
Fuels are any materials that can be burnt to release thermal
energy
Most familiar fuels consist primarily of C and H called
hydrocarbon fuels, denoted as C
n
H
m
Fuels can be broadly classified as
Form of fuel Primary (natural) Secondary (synthetic)
Liquid oil liquid biofuel
Solid coal, oil shale,
biomass
charcoal, coke, MSW
Gas natural gas biogas, refinery gas
Fossil Fuels
Natural gas, oil and coal are the three (fossil) fuels that are
abundantly used.
This energy is a stored form of solar energy that accumulated over
millions of years, and at the current and projected rates of
consumption, fossil fuels will be used up in a fraction of time
compared to the time it took to collect the energy from the sun.
Natural gas
Natural gas like petroleum is generally believed to be derived
from deposits of plant and animal remains from millions of years
ago.
It may be found along with oil or by itself as in many gas fields
where little or no oil is found.
As supplied is the cleanest fuel with sulfur removed (except for
small amounts of odorants added)
Simplest in term of composition and being a gas mixes
immediately in the combustor. Along with methane which is by
far the major combustible constituent of natural gas, other light
hydrocarbons, namely ethane, propane, and butane are present.
No ash and only molecular nitrogen, and a high H/C ratio which
minimizes the greenhouse gas CO
2
emission.
Coal
Is the least clean (fossil) fuel containing sulfur, elemental
nitrogen, low H/C ratio and ash
Coal has a very complex structure and being a solid is more
difficult to burn.
Coal combustion undergoes devolatilisation and combustion
of the released gases, char combustion and fly ash formation
which are particles 10 microns in size (the low visibility around
certain coal fired power plants is due to the fly ash).
Almost all of the coal consumed in the world is for
electric power generation by combusting the coal in
boilers and generating steam to power a turbine.
Coal is being used to a limited
extent in gasification based plants
to produce gas to fuel gas turbine
based combined cycles (IGCCs)
and in some countries such as
China for chemicals synthesis.
With more advanced gas turbines
under development, coal based
IGCC will have a strong economic
and environmental basis to
compete with boiler based power
plants.
Coal is classified into the following four types according to
the degree of metamorphism:
Anthracite which is low in volatile matter (which forms tars,
oils and gasses when coal is heated) and consists of mostly
carbon (fixed carbon)
Bituminous which contains significant amounts of the volatile
matter and typically exhibit swelling or caking properties
when heated
Sub-bituminous is a younger coal and contains in addition to
the volatile matter, significant amounts of moisture
Lignite is the youngest form of coal (when peat is not
included in the broader definition of coal types) and is very
high in moisture content resulting in a much lower heating
value than the other types of coal.
Oil
Represents an intermediate fuel in terms of quality.
Petroleum oil is a mixture of a number of hydrocarbons with
some sulfur, nitrogen and organo-metallic compounds also
present.
A number of processing steps are involved in producing the
various high value salable fuel streams such as gasoline, diesel
and jet fuel from the petroleum.
Oil which contains more than 300 molecular species needs to
be atomized (less than 10 microns to provide large surface
area), and within the combustor it has to vaporize and mix
before combustion can occur).
Oil shale
The organic solids in oil shale rock are a wax-like material
called kerogen.
Kerogen is extracted by heating in retorts in the absence of air
where it decomposes forming oil, gas, water and some carbon
residue.
Production of gasoline or jet fuel from the oil produced from the
oil shale, however requires more extensive processing than
most petroleum feedstocks.
The shale oil also contains more nitrogen than petroleum does
which if left in the fuels produced from the shale oil would result
in significant NOx emissions.
Non-fossil fuels
Biomass
Is all plant and animal matter on the
Earth's surface including trees, crops,
algae and other plants, as well as
agricultural and forest residues plus
other wastes, e.g. MSW, industrial
wastes, wastewater
Renewable (produced sustainably)
Considered carbon neutral fuel. When
using biomass to displace fossil fuels,
CO
2
emissions are largely avoided
and the overall system is often carbon
neutral or close to it.
Multiuse food, energy, materials
Distributed nature and can be grown
close to where it is used
Fuel contains combustibles, which should be known for
stoichiometric calculations.
Analyses of various solid fuels are conducted for
Proximate analysis:
Moisture, Volatile matter (VM), Mineral matter (or ash),
Fixed carbon, Calorific values
The value of proximate analysis
Identifies the fuel value of the as-received material
Provides an estimate of ash handling requirement
Describes something of the burning characteristics
Ultimate analysis: C, H, N, O, S
Describes something of the burning and product
characteristics
Fuel properties
Calorific values = Heat of combustion of fuel
Defined as the total heat produced when a unit mass of fuel
is completely burnt with pure oxygen
Two terms of calorific values
NCV or LHV: when water vapour is present in the flue gas
(the latent heat of vapourisation is lost)
GCV or HHV: when water vapour is condensed and
therefore this latent heat is added
NCV = GCV (% mass of hydrogen) x 9 x
v

v
= latent heat of vapourisation at reference temperature
= 2442.5 kJ /kg at 298.15 K (25C)
Moisture
Water expelled from fuel in its various forms (when tested
under specified conditions)
Normally moisture content is determined by drying sample of
known mass at 110C until no further weight loss is observed.
Depends on a combination of its origination and
treatment/storage
Biomass: harvesting method, climatic conditions, time of
year when harvesting takes place and the length and
method of storage
Coal: coal rank, method of storage, pre-treatment
Moisture content has a significant effect on many of the
energy conversion processes. For example,
The percentage of solids present in the digestate when
biogas is obtained from an anaerobic digestion process
affects the gas yields
For dry biomass fuels, such as wood or straw, the amount
of water present has a considerable effect on the
proportion of the total heat content of the material that is
possible to recover as a result of combustion
High moisture fuel makes feeding system difficult, render
agglomeration, incomplete combustion
Volatile matter (VM) and Fixed carbon
VM = Total loss in the weight minus the moisture in fuel
when heated under specified conditions
Fixed C is normally obtained by difference
0
20
40
60
80
100
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110
Time (min)
W
e
i
g
h
t

(
%
)
0
200
400
600
800
1000
T
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e

(
C
)
TGA result for proximate analysis of solid fuel
(1)
(2)
(4) (3)
(1) moisture
(2) Volatile
matter
(3) Fixed
carbon
(4) Ash
Generally biomass fuels are highly volatile (= low fixed
carbon) and need to have specialized combustor designs
to cope with rapid gas evolution when heated
Fuels with low volatiles, such as coal, need to be burnt on
a grate as they take a long time to burn out unless they are
pulverized to a very small size
Mineral matter or often referred to as ash content
Inorganic residue left over when fuel is incinerated
(completely combusted) in air to constant mass under
specified condition
Characterization of ash by elemental analysis and fusion
temperatures is an important aspect of utilizing biomass fuels
Ash analysis provides
Information on how much ash there will be to dispose
Information on whether special ash treatments are needed
before disposal
Information on slagging, fouling and clinker formation in
the burner and boiler to be predicted
Ash management presents both a problem and an
opportunity
Removal of ash from the furnace and disposal in
landfill areas incurs costs for power plants
Ash can be recycled in the forest ecosystem, depletion
of plant nutrients (other than nitrogen) and acidification
associated with intensive biomass removal, is then
radically reduced
Examples of slag problem
For pure wood combustion, the combustion
temperatures are likely to be low, ash fusion does not
usually represent a problem; however, when wood is
co-fired with coal, combustion temperatures are
considerably higher and may reach a level where
slagging could occur
In the case of straw or palm EFB combustion, ash fusion
and the resulting slagging represent a considerable problem
which has to be solved by special boiler designs
The combination of some mineral matters in coal also
increase slagging potential
Bottom ash Slag
Ultimate analysis: C, H, N, O, S
For ultimate analysis, fuel sample is burnt in a current of
oxygen producing water, carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide and
sulfur dioxide, which are measured to determine the amount
of the original elements
The results are normally presented on air-dried basis
Converting to as-received basis by
As-received basis = Air-dried basis x (100 moisture)
100
Attempts have been made to correlate the ultimate
analysis of a fuel with its calorific value. One of the most
commonly used relationships is that given by Dlong
GCV (kJ /kg) = 33950 C + 144200 [H (O/8)] + 9400 S
Where C and S = mass fraction of carbon and sulfur
H (O/8) = mass fraction of net hydrogen
= total hydrogen 1/8 (oxygen)
Calderwood equation is relating total carbon content with
the proximate analysis and the GCV
mass % of carbon = 5.88 + 0.00512 (GCV 40.5 S)
0.0053 [80 100 (VM/FC)]
1.55
If 100 (VM/FC) > 80, the sign is (-) and vice versa
Calculate NCV at 298.15 K of crude oil having following
properties:
Ultimate analysis: 87.1% C, 12,5% H and 0.4% S (by mass)
GCV at 298.15 K is 45,071 kJ /kg oil
Latent heat of water vapour at 298.15 K = 2442.5 kJ /kg
The GHV of gaseous propane is 2,219.71 kJ /mol at 298.15 K,
calculate its NHV
Exercise
Combustion
Is a chemical reaction during which a fuel is oxidised and a large
quantity of energy is released
For any combustion reaction, oxygen is the agent which will
combine with carbon, hydrogen and sulfur
In normal practice, air is used since it is the cheapest source of
oxygen (about 21 mole% of air)
One drawback of air utilisation is the presence of nitrogen (79
mole%), which reduces the flame temperature considerably and
also accounts for the high heat loss of stack
Oxygen has much greater tendency to combine with hydrogen
than it does with carbon, therefore hydrogen is normally burned to
completion forming H
2
O. Some of carbon, however, ends up as
CO or just as plain as C particles (soot) in the products.
It should also be mentioned that bringing a fuel into intimate
contact with oxygen is not sufficient to start a combustion process.
The fuel must be brought above its ignition temperature to start
combustion
Minimum ignition temperatures of various substances in air
Gasoline 260C
Carbon 400C
Hydrogen 580C
Carbon monoxide 610C
methane 630C
Moreover, the proportions of the fuel and air must be in proper
range for combustion to begin, e.g. natural will only be burn in air
in concentration between 5-15%
Combustion equations are balanced on the basis of the
conservation of mass principle: The total mass of each
element is conserved during a chemical reaction
2 kg of hydrogen 16 kg of oxygen 2 kg of hydrogen
16 kg of oxygen
H
2
+ O
2
= H
2
O
Theoretical or stoichiometric amount of air = the minimum air
required to burn fuel completely so that C, H and S are
converted into CO
2
, H
2
O and SO
2
, respectively
Theoretical/ stoichiometric air
Consider combustion reactions
mole of O
2
needed/ 1 mole of reactant
C + O
2
= CO
2
1
H
2
+ O
2
= H
2
O
S + O
2
= SO
2
1
Theoretical air demand (in moles)
= Theoretical oxygen demand (in moles)/ 0.21
mole of air needed/ 1 mole of reactant
CH
4
C
6
H
12
O
6
Stoichiometry
For a hydrocarbon fuel given by C
x
H
y
, the stoichiometric
relation can be expressed as
Where a = x + y/4
Composition of air is 21% O
2
and 79% N
2
Each mole of O
2
in air, there are 3.76 moles of N
2
C
x
H
y
+ a(O
2
+ 3.76N
2
) xCO
2
+ (y/2)H
2
O + 3.76aN
2
F = =
(A/F)
stoi
(A/F)
(F/A)
(F/A)
stoi
for fuel-rich mixtures, F > 1
fuel-lean mixtures, F < 1
stoichiometric mixture, F = 1
Where A/F = mass ratio of air to fuel
Equivalence ratio
The equivalence ratio, F, is commonly used to indicate
quantitatively whether a fuel-oxidizer mixture is rich, lean,
or stoichiometric.
In actual practice, theoretical air is not sufficient to get complete
combustion. Excess air supply (or, in the other words, excess
oxygen supply) is essential for complete combustion.
% Excess air
= (actual air supply theoretical air demand) x 100
theoretical air demand
The actual percentage excess air depends on the fuel used for
combustion. Normally gaseous fuels require very less excess
air, i.e. 5-15% excess air, than liquid and solid fuels, which
require 10-50% excess air.
Excess air can reduce the flame temperature and increase the
heat losses through the flue gases
Excess air
Theoretical as well as actual air requirements are expressed in
kg/kg of fuel by multiplying with the average molar mass of air
m
3
/kg of fuel by multiplying with specific volume of air at that
condition
Normally, flue gases contain CO
2
, CO, H
2
O, O
2
, SO
2
and N
2
, with
very low concentration of SO
3
.
Water in flue gases
Interferes with the gas analysis, it is removed prior to the
analysis of dry gases.
Comes from three sources: water vapour product, evaporated
moisture in fuel, water vapour accompanying air for
combustion
Exercise
One kmol of octane is burned with air that contain 20 kmol of O
2
.
Assuming the products contain only CO
2
, H
2
O, O
2
, and N
2
,
determine the mole number of each gas in the products and the
air-fuel ratio for this combustion process.
Exercise
The ultimate analysis of a residual fuel oil sample is given below:
C: 88.4 %, H: 9.4%, and S: 2.2% (mass)
It is used as a fuel in a power-generating boiler with 25 % excess
air. Calculate
(a) the theoretical dry air requirement
(b) the actual dry air supplied
(c) composition of flue gases

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