Fuels and Combustion

Most of the fuels contain Carbon and Hydrogen

and are in solid, liquid or in gaseous form.

1. Solid Fuels (Coal): Consists of moisture,

volatile matter, fixed carbon and ash. The
analysis specifies on a mass basis, the
relative amounts of these constituents. The
ultimate analysis may be given on the dry
basis.

2. Liquid Fuels: Most liquid fuels are mixtures

of many different Hydrocarbons. Common
examples are Gasoline, Kerosene, Diesel oil
etc. Commonly a liquid fuel is treated as a
single hydrocarbon with an empirical
formula CxHy even though it is a mixture of
several hydro carbons.

3. Gaseous fuels: Natural gas (mainly

Methane), coal gas (a mixture of methane
and Hydrogen) etc.
In most of the combustion processes the
required Oxygen is not supplied as pure
Oxygen but is supplied as air. Air contains 21
mol percent O2 and 79 mol percent of N2.

 0.79   0.79 
CH 4  2O 2  2  2
N  CO 2  2 H 2 O  2 N 2
 0.21   0.21 

CH 4  2O 2  2(3.76) N 2  CO 2  2 H 2 O  7.52 N 2

The minimum amount of air which supplies the

required amount of oxygen for complete
combustion of a fuel is called the stoichiometric
or theoretical air.

The amount of air in excess of the

stoichiometric air is called excess air. It is
usually expressed in terms of the stoichiometric
air as percent excess air. Amount of air less
than stoichiometric are called deficiency of air.

General combustion reaction

C x H y   O2 (O2  3.76 N 2 )   CO2 CO2   H 2O H 2O   N2 N 2
the coefficients to the substances called
stoichiometric coefficients. The balance of
atoms yields the theoretical amount of air as

C:  CO = x 2

H: 2 H O =y2

N2:  =3.76* 
N2 O2

O2:  O   CO   H O / 2  x  y / 4
2 2 2

And the total number of moles of air for 1 mole

of fuel becomes

nair =  O 2
 4.76  4.76( x  y / 4)

Two important parameters often used to

express the ratio of fuel and air are the air-fuel
ratio ( AF ) and its reciprocal, the fuel-air ratio
( FA ) .

AFmass= mair / mfuel

AFmole= nair / nfuel
 They are related through molecular weight as

mair n M M r
AFmass   air air  AFmole ai
m fuel n fuel M fuel M fuel

problem:

Methane (CH4) is burned with atmospheric air.

The analysis of the products on a dry basis is as
follows:

CO2 10.00%
O2 2.37
CO 0.53
N2 87.10
-----------
100.00%

Calculate the air-fuel ratio and the percent

theoretical air, and determine the combustion
equation.

Solution:
The solution consists of writing the combustion
equation for 100 kmol of dry products,
introducing letter coefficients for the unknown
quantities, and then solving for them.

From the analysis of the products, the following

equation can be written, keeping in mind that this
analysis is on a dry basis.

aCH 4  bO 2  cN 2  10.0CO 2  0.53CO  2.37O 2  dH 2 O  87.1N 2

A balance for each of the elements will enable us

to solve for all the unknown coeffiecients:

Nitrogen balance: c = 87.1

Since all the nitrogen comes from the air,

c / b =3.76 b=87.1/3.76=23.16

Carbon balance: a = 10.00+0.53=10.53

Hydrogen balance: d=2a=21.06

Oxygen balance: All the unknown coefficients

have been solved for, and therefore the oxygen
balance provides a check on the accuracy. Thus,
b can also be determined by an oxygen balance.

b=10.00+0.53/2+2.37+21.06/2=23.16

substituting these values for a,b,c and d we have

10.53CH 4  23.16O 2  87.1N 2  10.0CO 2  0.53CO  2.37O 2  21.06 H 2 O  87.1N 2

Dividing through by 10.53 yields the combustion

equation per kmol of fuel.

CH 4  2.2O 2  8.27 N 2  0.95CO 2  0.05CO  0.225O 2  2 H 2 O  8.27 N 2

The air-fuel ratio on a mole basis is

2.2+8.27=10.47 kmol air/kmol fuel

The fuel-air on a mass basis is found by

introducing the molecular weights.

AF=10.47*28.97/16.0=18.97 kg air/kg fuel

The theoretical air-fuel ratio is found by writing

the combustion equation for theoretical air.
CH 4  2O2  2(3.76) N 2  CO2  2 H 2 O  7.52 N 2

AFtheo= (2+7.52)28.97/16.0=17.23 kg air/kg fuel

The percent theoretical air is 18.97/17.23= 110%

Problem
A particular coal has the following ultimate
analysis on a dry basis, percent by mass:

Component Percent by mass

Sulfur 0.6
Hydrogen 5.7
Carbon 79.2
Oxygen 10.0
Nitrogen 1.5
Ash 3.0

This coal is to be burned with 30% excess air.

Calculate the air-fuel ratio on a mass basis.

Solution:

One approach to this problem is to write the

combustion equation for each of the combustible
elements per 100 kg of fuel. The molar
composition per 100 kg of fuel is found first.

Kmol S / 100 kg fuel = 0.6/32 = 0.02

Kmol H2 / 100 kg fuel = 5.7/2 = 2.85
Kmol C / 100 kg fuel=79.2/12=6.60
Kmol O2 / 100 kg fuel=10/32=0.31
Kmol N2 / 100 kg fuel=1.5/28=0.05

The combustion equations for the combustible

elements are now written, which enables us to
find the theoretical oxygen required.

0.02S  0.02O 2  0.02SO 2

2.85H 2  1.42O2  2.85H 2O

6.60C  6.60O2  6.60CO2

8.04 kmol O2 required / 100 kg fuel

-0.31 kmol O2 in fuel / 100 kg fuel
7.73 kmol O2 from air / 100 kg fuel

AFtheo=[7.73+7.73(3.76)]28.97/100=10.63 kg
air/kg fuel

For 30%excess air the air-fuel ratio is

AF=1.3*10.63=13.82 kg air/ kg fuel