Wood

1.8

1.6

1.4

1.2
Temperature

0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Time (min)

Jatropha Seed
2.5

2
Temperature

1.5

0.5

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Time (min)
CALCULATION
Amount of water used inside calorimeter= 2L

Density of water= 1g/ml

Mass of water used inside calorimeter, M= 2L * 1g/ml *1000ml = 2000g

Heat capacity of water= 1 cal/g

Assuming heat capacity of calorimeter material is very less,

Water equivalent, W = 1cal/g ºC * 2000g = 2000 cal/ºC

For Wood,

Maximum Temperature Rise, T= 1.62ºC

Mass of wooden pellet, M= 0.933g

WT=HM

2000 cal/ºC * 1.62ºC = H * 0.933g

HW = 3.47266881 Kcal/g

For Jatropha,

Maximum Temperature Rise, T= 2.04ºC

Mass of jatropha pellet, M= 0.980g

WT=HM

2000 cal/ºC * 2.04ºC = H * 0.980g

HJ = 4.163265 Kcal/g
RESULTS & DISCUSSIONS
Heat of Combustion of wood from research paper, Hw = 4.814 Kcal/g

Heat of Combustion of Jatropha from research paper, HJ= 9.751 Kcal/g

Now we observe that, the experimental value of heat of combustion of wood is

slightly less compared to the combustion value found in the research paper, this
may be due to moisture absorption by wood when exposed to prolonged air in
container. But for Jatropha, there is significant difference in value of heat of
combustion between the two. This may be due to reason that the value procured
from the research paper was for Jatropha oil but we used Jatropha seeds in our
experiment. Additionally, the container containing jatropha seeds was open
which may lead to absorption of moisture inside the Jatropha seeds even before
the experiment started.

We assumed that the heat capacity of the calorimeter assembly was negligible.
This assumption was taken because the heat capacity or water equivalent of the
calorimeter assembly parts were not mentioned anywhere, neither the process
for calculating those values.