Oxygen Bomb Calorimeter

1. Make sure the Tank Fill at the back of the calorimeter is full with deionised
water and red cap is put back in place.
2. Turn on the water mains.
3. Turn on the oxygen supply. The pressure gauge on the regulator furthest from
the cylinder should read 450 PSI. The gauge nearest the cylinder should read
3000 PSI when full but when it gets below 1000 PSI, soon time for a refill.
4. Turn on the power button on the calorimeter. There is approx 3 minutes wait
for the computer to start up.
5. Main Menu is displayed.
6. Press Calorimeter Operation on the main menu to bring you into sub menu.
7. The operating mode is: Standardisation for initial setup (calibration of
machine) and then determination for all experiments.
8. Then turn on the Heater + Pump from Menu on Display screen.
9. It will take approximately 20 minutes for the calorimeter to warm up and the
jacket temperature to stabilise at 30 degrees Celsius. Once it is at 30 degree
Celsius leave for another 10 minutes before starting test.

Starting a Test.

1. Open the screw cap on the top of the bomb holder.

2. Place about 2ml of water into bomb holder.
3. Lubricate the O Rings on the bomb seal with water.
4. Cut the fuse wire (Nickel Chromium, 1100 degrees Celsius) to 100 mm
and put the ends through the two holes in the sample holder and push
down clips to hold in place, leaving approx 10 mm each side. This wire is
approx 13 grams and is accounted for in the pre set values.
5. Put the crucible on the Analytical Balance and zero out the value.
6. Place the benzoic Acid tablet in crucible and take note of weight (.9465
grams)
7. Place the crucible with the tablet into the crucible holder and make sure
the fuse wire is sitting just above the benzoic acid tablet but not touching
it.
8. Open the inlet valve on bomb holder seal.
9. Push the bomb holder Seal down into bomb holder and then screw on cap
until tight and give one more turn.
10. Close valve on bomb holder seal.
11. Connect the oxygen pipe coupling on the bomb inlet valve which is
located on the top of bomb seal until it clicks into place.
12. Press the O2 fill command on the computer touch screen and wait for 60
seconds. It will shut off itself. (if you require to stop oxygen fill anytime
press the O2 fill command again)
13. Take of the oxygen pipe coupling.
 14. Put the empty bucket on the Pan balance for weighing and record the
weight. Approx (790 grams).
15. Put 2 litres of de-ionised water into bucket or until it weighs 2790 grams.
16. Then put the bucket and water into its position in the calorimeter chamber.
(One way only looking at legs). Place the handle of bucket to the back.
17. Lift bomb with the bomb tongs (two small holes either side of bomb
holder) and place into the bucket of water. (One position only). Keep
bomb vertical and handle with care so that the bomb will not be disturbed.
18. Remove the lifting tongs and shake any drops of water back into the
bucket.
19. Push the two ignition lead wires into the terminal sockets on the bomb
head. Push the wires to one side so that the do not become tangled in with
the stirring mechanism. Doesnt matter which way the wires connect.
Make sure there is no Oxygen bubbles coming out of the inlet valve that
was closed earlier. Do not touch the water as loss of water particles will
have an effect on the results.
20. Close down Chamber door.

Calorimeter Operation

1. The operating mode is standardization when calibrating at the start using

the benzoic acid tablet but you use Determination mode for all other tests.
2. Bomb id number is 1,2,3,4 etc
3. Sample ID number 1,2,3,4 etc
4. Hit the Start button on the control menu on the right column.
5. Enter the Sample weight (.9465 grams).
6. The calorimeter will now take over and conduct the test. During the time it
is establishing the initial equilibrium it will display PREPERIOD on the
status bar. Just before it fires the bomb the machine will alarm to warn the
user to move away. Once fired the status bar will display POSTPERIOD.
7. The red line on graph is the bucket temperature and the black line is the
jacket temperature.
8. Temperature versus Time plot. As every 12 seconds computer reads the
Temperature.
9. The printer will print off the results automatically when the test has
completed and when the printer starts it is also a sign that the test has
completed.

When finished:

1. Open chamber and pull out the two wires

2. Lift bucket and bomb out together.
3. Take bomb out of bucket.
4. Undo the Valve slightly venting any gases left in the bomb.
5. Spin off Screw cap.
 6. Pull out the bomb seal and crucible holder.
7. Examine the interior of the bomb for soot or other evidence of incomplete
combustion. If such evidence is found then the test will have to be
discarded.
8. Place bomb seal and crucible holder into water basin to clean overnight.
9. Clean out crucible.
10. Wash out bomb holder.
11. Turn off the oxygen at the tank.
12. Turn off the Water at the mains supply.
13. Turn Heater and Pump off on computer touch screen.
14. Turn off Mains supply on calorimeter.

Samples:

Solid fuel 1 gram (benzoic Acid, coal, turf, horse manure) 60 mesh and compressed in to
pellet form.
Liquid fuel gram. (Liquid paraffin, Bio-diesel)

Drying oven required for horse manure. 5% moisture allowed.

Calculations:

The calculation for the gross heat of combustion is done by:

Hc = WT-e1-e2-e3
M

Hc = Gross heat of combustion

T = Observed Temperature rise
W (EE) = Energy equivalent of the calorimeter being used, amount of energy required to
raise the temperature of the calorimeter one degree.
E1 = Heat produced by burning the nitrogen portion of the air trapped in the bomb to
form nitric acid.
E2 = The heat produced by the formation of sulphuric acid from the reaction of sulphur
dioxide, water and oxygen.
E3 = Heat produced by the heating wire and cotton thread.
M = Mass of Sample