Fuels and its Properties

Md. Shamiul Basar Himel

Lecturer
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Imperial College of Engineering (ICE), Khulna
shamiul.kuet@gmail.com

ME 2231 : Fuel and its Properties Md. Shamiul Basar Himel

 History

● It all started with fire

● Human interaction with fire probably started 1.5 million years ago in Africa
● Till nineteenth century Wood was primary source of energy
● Fossil fuels had limited usage 5000 B.C.
● Industrialisation and the invention of steam engines changed everything onwards
 Overview

❏ Energy Scenarios
 Q. What is fuel?

A fuel is any material that can be made to react with other substances so that it releases
energy as thermal energy or to be used for work

In IC engines, the chemical energy contained in the fuel is converted into mechanical
power by burning (oxidizing) the fuel inside the combustion chamber of the engine
❏ Characteristics (Q. How a fuel can be good?)
1. It should have higher energy density
2. It should possess high calorific value
3. It should have good thermal stability (storage and transportation), i.e. ability of a fuel to
resist breaking down under heat stress & must have sufficient flash point. An iron chain
should be connected to transportation to discharge any charged particle.
4. Should be low volatile so that the fuel can exerts less pressure & less evaporation which is
economic.
5. Low moisture content, that provides longer burning & efficient burning also lower smoke
production for solid fuel.
6. It should be non-toxic like having maximum possible lower amount of toxic chemical
element.
 Fuel Types

❏ Fuel types: (Q. What are the different types of fuel?)

● Solid Fuels
○ Wood, Peat, Coal, Coke, Charcoal
● Liquid Fuels
○ Petrol, Diesel, Kerosene, Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO)
● Gaseous Fuels
○ Coal gas, Producer gas, Water gas, Mond gas etc
 Solid Fuels

➔ Cheap, easily available

➔ Coal in particular, is used in the generation of 38.1% of the world’s electricity

❏ Wood
❏ Being used for centuries
❏ It is consist of basically by Hydrogen & Carbon.
❏ Turns into coal when burnt in absent of air
❏ Generally it is not considered as commercial fuel as it leads to deforestation &
more environmental pollution.
❏ Average calorific value of coal is 19,700 KJ/Kg
 Solid Fuels

❏ Peat
❏ Spongy humid substance
❏ First stage in the formation of Coal
❏ Upto 30% of water content
❏ Can’t be used unless dried
❏ Average Calorific value is 23,000 KJ/Kg

❏ Lignite or Brown Coal

❏ Next stage of peat in coal formation & is an intermediate variety between bituminous
coal & peat
❏ Contains 40% moisture and 60% carbon
❑ When dried, it crumbles & hence does not store well
❏ Very brittle & thus converted into briquettes before using as fuel that can be handled
easily.
❏ Average Calorific value is 25,000 KJ/Kg
 Solid Fuels

❏ Bituminous Coal
❏ Next stage of lignite in coal formation
❏ Moisture content is about 4% to 6%
❏ Carbon content is about 70% to 90%
❑ It is weather resistant & burns with a yellow flame.
❏ Average Calorific value is 33,500 KJ/Kg
❏ There are two types:
(a) Caking bituminous coal (Soft version)
➔ Known as soft coal.
➔ Burns with longer flame
➔ The caking variety is useful for manufacturing gas
➔ Difficult to ignite due to being soft and having pasty mass
➔ It’s specific gravity is 1.26 to 1.36
➔ Its average calorific value is 35,000 kJ/kg
(b) Non-caking bituminous coal (Hard version)
➔ Shorter flame, lesser smoke
➔ Mostly used as fuel for steam boilers, hence it is known as steam coal
➔ It’s specific gravity is 1.22 to 1.42
➔ Its average calorific value is 33 000 kJ/kg
 Solid Fuels

❏ Anthracite Coal
❏ Final stage in coal formation
❏ Carbon content is more than 90% with little volatile matter.
❏ Relatively smokeless & have little flame.
❏ Its calorific value is about 36,000 kJ/kg
❏ Commonly used in all types of heat engines, power generation

❏ Wood Charcoal
❏ Produced by heating wood with a limited supply of air to a temperature
not less than 280° C
❑ It is good prepared solid fuel
❏ Mainly used for metallurgical process
 Solid Fuels

❏ Coke
❏ Produced by continuously heating coal for 42 to 48 hours with the absence of air in a
closed vessel. This process is known as Carbonization of coal.
❏ Black in colour, porous and smokeless
❏ Carbon content: 85% to 90%
❑ It has higher calorific value than coal.
❏ Carbonization of coal carried out at 500° C to 700° C is known as soft coke &
is used as domestic fuel
❏ Carbonization of coal carried out at (900° C to 1100° C) is known as Hard coke &
is used in blast furnace for extracting pig iron from iron ores.

❏ Briquetted Coal
❏ Produced from the finely ground coal by moulding under pressure with or without a
binding material.
❏ Binding materials usually used are pitch, coal tar, crude oil and clay etc
❏ The briquetted coal has advantages of having no loss of fuel through grate openings
& thus it increases the heating value of the fuel.
 Solid Fuels

❑ Pulverized Coal
❏ Low grade coal with high ash content is powdered to produced
pulverized coal.
❏ The coal is first dried & then crushed into a fine powder by
pulverizing machine.
❑ It is widely used in cement industry & metallurgical processes.
 Proximate Analysis

Proximate analysis is simple test of quality of fuel. The proximate analysis of a fuel indicates the
moisture,volatile matter, fixed carbon and ash content of the fuel in terms of percentage by
weight.

❏ Proximate Analysis of Coal

❏ The amount of moisture is calculated by heating 1g of coal sample to a temperature of
108° C to 110° C, so that all the moisture content is evaporated and then the loss of
weight is noted.
❏ To find the amount of volatile matter, 1g sample of coal is heated in an airtight crucible
for seven minutes at about 950° C. The volatile matter and moisture is liberated and the
loss of weight is noted and already found loss of moisture weight is deduced.
❏ The percentage of ash is determined by heating 1g sample of coal with the presence of air
at about 725° C. This burns all the carbon content and leave ash as residue.
❏ The percentage of fixed carbon = (100 - % of moisture, volatile matter and ash
combined)