SELECTION CRITERIA OF FUEL

Selection of fuel is a very important and critical decision one has to

make. Various criteria are to be considered while selecting a fuel.
Some of important criteria are Fuel Economy, Availability of fuel,
Pollution from vehicle, Maintenance of the vehicle. Selection of
best fuel is a complex situation. It needs a multi-criteria analysis.
Earlier, the solution to the problem were found by applying
classical numerical methods which took into account only
technical and economic merits of the various alternatives. By
applying multi-criteria tools, it is possible to obtain more realistic
results.

The following characteristics are taken into consideration for the

selection of a fuel for a particular purpose:
 1. The fuel selected should be most suitable for the process. For
instance, coke made out of bituminous coal is most suitable for
blast furnace and also as a foundry fuel.
 2. The fuel should posses a high calorific value.
 3. The fuel should be cheap and readily available.
 4. It should possess a moderate ignition temperature. Too high
ignition temperatures cause difficulty in sparking while too low
ignition temperatures may create safety problems during storage,
transport and use of the fuel.
 5. The supply position of the fuel should be reliable.
 6. The velocity of combustion should be moderate.
 7. The fuel should be such that a safe and clean operation is
ensured. Too much smoke and insufferable odors are not desirable.
 8. It should be safe, convenient and economical for storage and
transport.
 9. It should have low moisture content.
 10. In case of a solid fuel, the ash content should be less and the
size should be more or less uniform.
Following are the some methods used for calculating combustion:

Manual Gas Measurements

The Orsat analyzer is a gas concentration analysis tool typically used to manually sample CO2, O2 and CO
from the flue of a combustion system. The Orsat analyzer determines the gas concentrations from a
sample of gas extracted from the flue and bubbled through solutions of reagents that selectively absorb
each gas. By measuring the decrease in gas volume over the liquid reagents, the amount of gas
absorbed is indicated. From this information, stack gas concentration is calculated. Manual gas
measurements are time consuming and do not accurately reflect real-time adjustments made to a
system.

Portable Electronic Instruments

In recent years, electronic instruments such as the CA-CALC™ Combustion Analyzer from TSI
Incorporated have been developed to analyze combustion routinely for tune-ups, maintenance and
emissions monitoring. These instruments are extractive. They remove a sample from the stack or flue
with a vacuum pump and then analyze the sample using electrochemical gas sensors. Thermocouples
are used for stack and combustion air temperature measurements, and a pressure transducer is used for
the draft measurement. An on-board computer performs the common combustion calculations,
eliminating the need to use tables or perform tedious calculations. Electronic instruments show the
results of boiler adjustments in real-time and give more accurate information to help ensure that a
system has been tuned properly.

Continuous Emission Monitors

Continuous emission monitors, or CEMS, are a class of electronic instruments designed to measure
exhaust stack gases and temperature continuously. CEMs are sometimes used for combustion control,
but typically are used for monitoring pollutant gas emissions as required by government regulations.
CEMs can use both extractive and in-situ (sensors in the stack) sampling methods, and employ a variety
of electronic sensor technologies for gas detection. CEMs are used most often on larger installations or
when required by regulatory agencies.