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ISBN: 978-81-265-4475-2
Copyright©2014 Wiley India Pvt. Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Introduction
Gaseous fuel
Classifications of (e.g., natural gas)
Fuels
Primary or natural
fuels (e.g., wood, coal)
Based on
occurrence Secondary or prepared
fuels
(e.g., charcoal, petrole
um coke).
Engineering Chemistry (revised edition)
ISBN: 978-81-265-4475-2
Copyright©2014 Wiley India Pvt. Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Characteristics of a Good Fuel
1. It should ignite easily. The temperature of the fuel at which ignition starts
and continues to burn without further addition of heat is called ignition
temperature. It should be moderate for a good fuel. Very low ignition
temperature leads to fi re hazard and very high ignition temperature
disfavors the starting of fi re.
2. It should give out a lot of heat, that is, its specific heat should be high.
3. It should have low smoke and combustible matter such as ash. It should not
give out harmful combustion products. This property depends on the nature
of elements present in the fuel.
4. It should be inexpensive and readily available.
5. It should be easy to store and transport.
6. It should have low ash content. Ash reduces the calorific value of the fuel,
causes hindrance to the flow of air and heat, reduces the specific heat and
leads to unwanted disposable problems.
Engineering Chemistry (revised edition)
ISBN: 978-81-265-4475-2
Copyright©2014 Wiley India Pvt. Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Calorific Value
Units
Theoretically Determination
Dulong’s formula for calculating the calorific value from the chemical
composition of the fuel may be written as follows:
Bomb calorimeter
Ignition
temperature
Explosive
range
Concepts Flame
Surface
combustion
Primary
combustion
Engineering Chemistry (revised edition)
ISBN: 978-81-265-4475-2
Copyright©2014 Wiley India Pvt. Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Calculations
Orsat’s apparatus
Pulverized Coal
It includes the determination of moisture content, volatile matter, ash and fixed
carbon. In this analysis, the data varies with the procedure adopted for study. The
content of moisture, volatile matter and ash are experimentally determined, while
that of fixed carbon is calculated.
Proximate Analysis
1. Moisture content: Lesser the moisture content, better is the quality of coal.
3. Ash content: Lower the ash content, better is the quality of coal.
4. Fixed carbon: Higher fixed carbon content, better is the quality of coal.
1. Greater the percentage of carbon and hydrogen, better is the coal in quality
and calorific value. However, hydrogen is mostly associated with the volatile
matter and hence, it affects the use to which the coal is put to.
2. Nitrogen has no calorific value and hence its presence in coal is undesirable.
Thus, a good quality coal has very little nitrogen content.
3. Sulphur is usually present to the extent of 0.5–3.0% and is derived from ores
like iron pyrite and gypsum, etc., mines along with the coal. Sulphur,
although contributes to the heating value of coal, on combustion it produces
acids which have harmful effects of corroding the equipment and also
causes atmospheric pollution.
4. Oxygen content decreases the calorific value of coal. High oxygen content
coals are characterized by high inherent moisture content, low calorific value
and low coking power. Moreover, oxygen is in combined form with
hydrogen in coal and thus, hydrogen available for combustion is lesser than
actually present.
Engineering Chemistry (revised edition)
ISBN: 978-81-265-4475-2
Copyright©2014 Wiley India Pvt. Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Coke
Coke is obtained when coal is heated strongly out of contact with the air, the
process is called carbonization or coking.
Coals that produce soft and plastic mass at around 400 C that re-solidifies to
form a porous solid are called caking coals. Caking coals that produce solid
product (coke) of useful grade are called coking coals. A good coking coal will
produce a bright gray, strongly coherent, porous coke. All coking coals are caking
coals but not vice versa.
High volatile coals are mixed with poor or non-coking low-volatile coals, to yield
a denser, stronger coke. Where mixing is practiced, the mixture used depends on
the coal used. Usually high- and low volatile coals are mixed to give a mixture
having about 30% of volatile matter.
Bee-Hive Oven
1. Dry quenching: The insulated wall of the oven is removed, so that the inert
gases like nitrogen present in the atmosphere are able to come in contact
with the coke and cool it naturally over a period of time.
2. Wet quenching: Water is sprayed over the red hot coke for cooling it down.
As a result of this, some gases escape from the hot surface of the coke in
form of steam and cause pollution. This method also generates a large
amount of coke dust.
Dry quenching is preferred over wet quenching due to the following reasons:
1. The method is dust free and dry without causing pollution to the
environment.
2. The heated gases could be used to recover heat by circulating them through
the boilers for steam generation.
3. The coke obtained is strong, dense and free from moisture.
Engineering Chemistry (revised edition)
ISBN: 978-81-265-4475-2
Copyright©2014 Wiley India Pvt. Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Coal tar
Ammonia
H2S
1. The byproduct coke oven, the valuable byproducts are saved; whereas in the
beehive oven, they are allowed to escape into the atmosphere.
2. The byproducts are well worth saving and have many important uses. Their
recovery helps to make the process economical.
3. In the purification of the byproduct coke-oven gas by means of a liquid-
contact process, pure sulphur can be obtained in a form much finer than the
commercial precipitated sulphur.
4. This finely divided sulphur has been found to process superior qualities as a
fungicide.
5. Among the other interesting and valuable byproducts recovered by the
liquid-purification processes are the thiocyanates of ammonium, sodium,
and calcium.
The term semi-solid fuel in modern context refers to non-volatile substances that
are environmentally safe and produce no hazardous waste on burning. These
have long shelf-life and their ignition can be easily started and stopped. The
conventional solid and liquid fuels are now being used as formulations in semi-
solid form to circumvent the problems associated with their use in the regular
form.
The use of coal is associated with many environmental problems, starting from
its excavation from mines to gaseous and fly ash emissions. To overcome these
problems, developing countries are transforming coal into gaseous or liquid fuel
formulations or converting it into low ash and low sulphur varieties. For example,
a solvent-refined, semi-solid form of coal has been prepared by suspending
pulverized coal in a solvent and treating it with hydrogen gas at high temperature
and pressure. The product compares well with high grade anthracite in
combustion properties, is free from ash and has high calorific value of 16000
BTU per pound.
Engineering Chemistry (revised edition)
ISBN: 978-81-265-4475-2
Copyright©2014 Wiley India Pvt. Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Liquid fuels – Petroleum
1. Petroleum is made from the remains of plants and animals buried millions
of years ago.
2. It is a non-renewable resource.
3. It contains straight or cycloparaffins.
4. Olefins
5. Aromatics
6. Other organic compounds containing N, O, S.
The petroleum obtained by mining is viscous and dark colored liquid. Due to the
presence of sulphur, it has an unpleasant smell. It also contains impurities of
sand, brine or sea water. Hence it is called crude oil.
Catalytic Cracking
Fluidized (moving)
bed catalytic
cracking (FCC)
1. Better contact with the feed and the catalyst, enabling uniform temperature
and efficient heat transfer.
2. The catalyst can be regenerated and used again for the cracking process.
Compounds
Isolated from Diesel
Crude Oil
Aviation gasoline
Petrol is used in spark ignition engines. The rapid compression of the fuel-air
mixture heats the engine, and it detonates without the spark being passed. This
causes a violent jerk to the piston giving a metallic sound called knocking.
Power Alcohol
Ethyl alcohol is used as additive to motor fuels. When blended with petrol at
concentrations of 5–10%, it is called power alcohol. The addition of alcohol to
petrol increases its octane number.
Manufacture of Ethanol
1. By fermentation
1. Ethyl alcohol is a good antiknocking agent and power alcohol has octane
number 90, while that of petrol is 65.
2. Any moisture content present is absorbed by alcohol.
3. Ethyl alcohol contains oxygen atoms, which help for complete combustion
of power alcohol and the polluting emissions of CO, hydrocarbon,
particulates are largely reduced.
4. Power alcohol is cheaper than petrol.
1. Ethyl alcohol has calorific value 7000 cal/g much lower than that of petrol
which has 11500 cal/g. However, this problem could be overcome by using a
specially designed engine with higher compression ratio.
2. The output of the power generated is reduced up to 35%.
3. It has high surface tension and its atomization is difficult, especially at lower
temperature, thereby causing starting trouble.
4. It may undergo oxidation reaction to form acetic acid, which corrodes
engine parts.
5. As it contains oxygen atoms, the amount of air require for complete
combustion is less, therefore, the carburetor and engine need to be modified.
Bergius Process
The ease and flexibility of application of gaseous fuels give them advantages
over solid or liquid fuels
The origin of natural gas is closely associated with that of petroleum; it is always
found in or near the petroleum fields. Because of this fact, it is not available over
large parts of the country, although pipelines are being constantly extended to
furnish gas to large-consuming centers, where it may be used either alone or
mixed with artificial gas.
Natural gas is a cheap and convenient fuel consisting of methane and other
saturated hydrocarbons. Its calorific value is 12000–14000 kcal/m2. The
composition of a natural gas is as follows:
About 14% of the gas produced is used for making carbon black. It is also used
as a fuel for industrial and is domestic constituent.
This gaseous fuel is compressed natural gas (CNG) which mainly contains
methane. It is obtained by applying high pressure, generally, 1000 atm to reduce
the original volume at standard atmospheric pressure to less than 1%. A steel
cylinder can fill 15 kg of this fuel gas with a volume of 20 m3 at a pressure of 1
atm. CNG is used as automobile fuel, especially, in cars and its use is increasing
progressively. Its advantages are as follows:
1. It requires a lot of space for storage and hence is not suitable for smaller
vehicles.
2. It has high ignition temperature 550 C and requires more air for ignition.
Engineering Chemistry (revised edition)
ISBN: 978-81-265-4475-2
Copyright©2014 Wiley India Pvt. Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Coal Gas
Tertiary
explosives
Classification of
Low explosives
Chemical Explosives
On the Basis of
Velocity
High explosives
1. Lead azide
2. Nitrocellulose
3. PETN
6. Nitroglycerine