Professional Documents
Culture Documents
ENGAGE
The fuel is a material which when once raised to its ignition temperature continues to burn
if sufficient oxygen or air is available. The principal constituents of any fuel are carbon and
hydrogen. The materials which evolve heat after burning, are called combustibles. Carbon
and hydrogen are combustibles. Sulphur is also a combustible material. When anything
slowly combines chemically with oxygen, the process is called oxidation. When the same
process occurs with a considerable swiftness and exotherm chemical reaction, it is called
combustion; whereas such a process with almost instantaneous action is called
detonation.
An familiar application of fuels is a coal power plant. A coal-fired power station or coal
power plant is a thermal power station which burns coal to generate electricity. Coal-fired
power stations generate over a third of the world's electricity but cause hundreds of
thousands of early deaths each year, mainly from air pollution. A coal-fired power station is
a type of fossil fuel power station. The coal is usually pulverized and then burned in a
pulverized coal-fired boiler. The furnace heat converts boiler water to steam, which is then
used to spin turbines that turn generators. Thus chemical energy stored in coal is converted
successively into thermal energy, mechanical energy and, finally, electrical energy.
EXPLORE
Classification of Fuels:
1. Solid fuel
2. Liquid fuel
3. Gaseous fuel
Oil or petroleum is another type of fuel. Oil has been used for 5,000 to 6,000 years.
In ancient times, the Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Samarians used crude oil as a fuel. The
crude oil was collected from the Euphrates River. The ancient Egyptians used liquid oil as a
medicine to treat wounds and to provide light in lands. In 1859 Edwin Drake discovered
crude oil in Titusville, Pennsylvania. He found crude oil underground and pumped it out to
the surface and stored it in wood barrels. One of the world’s oil supply is derived from the
oil wells of California and the middle east.
Natural gas was discovered 2000 years ago. The natural gas seats were first discovered
in Iran. The ancient Persians discovered the natural gas. Natural gas is made up of
methane and is lighter than air. Natural gas is usually found near petroleum wells pumped
out, purified and stored.
Uses of Natural Gas: Domestic, industrial, power generation, fuel for vehicles, feed
stocks for fertilizers, hydrogen fuel cells.
Other forms of natural gas such as biogas are used in the countryside for domestic
purposes.
Stoichiometry - is the branch of chemistry which deals with mass and volume relations in
unit operations and unit processes. The basic principle of stoichiometry is the Law of
Definite and Multiple Proportions. This states that a pure chemical substance always
contains its elements in the same proportions by weight, and that, when two elements
unite to form a series of compounds, the weight of one element combining with a fixed
weight of the other are simple integral multiples of each other.
Combustion
▪ Commonly employed industrial process for heat generation
▪ It is the chemical reaction of a free reactant (oxygen, O 2 in air) and commonly
available chemical called fuel.
▪ It is accompanied by the evolution of light and heat, thus, it is generally used in the
generation of heat to supply energy to the process industries.
Classes of Fuels
Fuels can be divided into three general classes: gaseous, liquids and solids. The
stoichiometric treatments of problems involving different classes of fuels are similar.
Consequently, in the study of the methods for manipulation of the data supplied, the
actual form of the fuel is not of great importance.
A. Gaseous Fuels
▪ Industrial fuels that usually contain CO, light or low molecular weight hydrocarbons and
sometimes nitrogen and oxygen
Examples:
1. Natural Gas - combustible gas that occurs in porous rocks of the earth’s crust
(methane (CH4), ethane (C2H6), propane (C3H8), butane (C4H10), CO, H2, N2)
2. Liquefied Natural gas (LNG) - natural gas in liquid form
3. Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) - can be liquefied under moderate pressure at
normal temperature but are gaseous under normal atmospheric pressure
4. Re-formed Gas - applied to lower thermal value gases obtained by the pyrolysis and
steam decomposition of high thermal value gases
5. Oil Gases - made from thermal decomposition of oils
6. Producer Gas - generated by blasting a deep, hot bed of coal of coke continuously
with a mixture of air and steam
7. Blue Water Gas - a blast of air is forced through a fuel bed and steam is passed
through forming blue water gas
8. Carbureted Water Gas - water gas enriched with oil
9. Blast Furnace Gas - a byproduct of the manufacture of pig iron in blast surfaces
B. Liquid Fuels
▪ Light and heavy oils obtained in the refining of petroleum oil
Examples:
1. Non-Petroleum Liquefied Fuels
a) Tar Sands - strip-mined and extracted with hot water to recover heavy oil
b) Oil Shale - non-porous rocks containing organic kerogen; extracted by pyrolysis
after mining
3. Heavy Oils - fuel oil that contains residual oil left over from distillation
a) Bunker oil
C. Solid Fuels
Examples: coal, wood, charcoal
The empirical formula is also known as the simplest formula. The empirical formula is the
ratio of elements present in the compound. The subscripts in the formula are the numbers
of atoms, leading to a whole number ratio between them.
▪ The molecular formula of glucose is C 6H12O6. One molecule of glucose contains 6
atoms of carbon, 12 atoms of hydrogen and 6 atoms of oxygen.
▪ If you can divide all of the numbers in a molecular formula by some value to simplify
them further, then the empirical or simple formula will be different from the molecular
formula. The empirical formula for glucose is CH 2O. Glucose has 2 moles of hydrogen
for every mole of carbon and oxygen.
Examples
1. Menthol, the substance we can smell in mentholated cough drops, is composed of C,
H, and O. A 0.1005 g sample of menthol is combusted, producing 0.2829 g of CO 2 and
0.1159 g of H2O. What is the empirical formula for menthol?
Given: weight of sample = 0.1005 g
CO2 produced = 0.2829 g
H2O produced = 0.1159 g
Required: Empirical Formula
Solution:
▪ Calculate the amount of C in the sample through the CO 2 produced:
1mol, CO2 1mol, C 12g , C
g , C 0.2829g , CO2 0.0772g , C
44g , CO2 1mol, CO2 1mol, C
▪ Calculate the amount of H in the sample though the H 2O produced:
1mol, H 2O 2mol, H 1g , H
g , H 0.1159g , H 2O 0.0129g , H
18g , H 2O 1mol, H 2O 1mol, H
3. Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) contains 40.92% C, 4.58% H, and 54.50% O, by mass. The
experimentally determined molecular mass is 176 g/mol. What is the empirical and
molecular formula for ascorbic acid? Atomic Weights: C = 12.011 g/mol, H = 1.008
g/mol, O = 15.999 g/mol
Given: 40.92% C
4.58% H
54.50% O
MW = 176 g/mol
Solution: Assume a basis of 100 g sample of ascorbic acid
▪ Determine the number of moles for each element:
1mol, C
mols, C 100g 40.92% 3.41mol, C
12.011g , C
1mol, H
mols, H 100g 4.58% 4.54mol, H
1.008g , H
1mol, O
mols, O 100g 54.50% 3.41mol, O
15.999g , O
▪ Find the mole ratio by dividing by the smallest quantity:
3.41mol 3.41mol
C 1 O 1
3.41mol 3.41mol
4.54mol
H 1.33
3.41mol
Round your ratio of moles to the nearest whole number as long as it is close to
a whole number. In other words, you can round 1.992 up to 2, but you can't
1. What is the empirical formulate for isopropyl alcohol (which contains only C, H and O)
if the combustion of a 0.255 grams isopropyl alcohol sample produces 0.561 grams of
CO2 and 0.306 grams of H2O?
2. Naphthalene, the active ingredient in one variety of mothballs, is an organic
compound that contains carbon and hydrogen only. Complete combustion of a
20.10 mg sample of naphthalene in oxygen yielded 69.00 mg of CO 2 and 11.30 mg of
H2O. Determine the empirical formula of naphthalene.
3. Xylene, an organic compound that is a major component of many gasoline blends,
contains carbon and hydrogen only. Complete combustion of a 17.12 mg sample of
xylene in oxygen yielded 56.77 mg of CO 2 and 14.53 mg of H2O. Determine the
empirical and molecular formula of xylene. Molecular weight of xylene is 106.16
g/mol.
Complete Combustion
▪ All combustible materials are completely gasified, all carbon, C, in the fuel is burned to
CO2, all hydrogen is converted to H2O, and all sulfur to sulfur dioxide.
Incomplete Combustion
▪ Indicated by the presence of CO and unburned H2 in the product and unburned
combustibles in the refuse (in solid fuels only)
▪ It represents a heat loss since this should have been given off for additional power use
had the fuel been completely burned. Presence of soot in exhaust also indicated
incomplete combustion.
▪ Reaction:
1
C O2 CO heat
2
Note: N2 is non-combustible
B. Theoretical Air for Combustion - air that contains the exact amount of theoretical O 2. Air
is assumed to contain 21% O 2 and 79% N2 by volume. N2 in air is non-combustible and acts
only as diluent to the O2 in air. The theoretical air therefore is determined from theoretical
O2.
2. Determine the amount of O 2 and air theoretically required for the combustion of 100
kmols of blast furnace gas analyzing 25% CO, 10% CO 2, 5% H2, 10% CH4, 45% N2, and 5%
O2.
Given:
Method I:
theo O2 = O2 to burn CO + O2 to burn H2 + O2 to burn CH4 - O2 in fuel
1 2 kmol, O2 1 2 kmol, O2 2kmol, O2
theo, O2 25kmol, CO 5kmol, H 2 10kmol, CH 4 5kmol, O2
1kmol, CO 1kmol, H 2 1kmol, CH 4
theo, O2 30kmol, O2
100kmol, air
theo, air 30kmol, O2
21kmol, O2
Method II:
theo O2 = O2 to burn total C + O2 to burn total H - O2 in fuel
1kmol, C 1kmol, C 1kmol, C
total, C 25kmol, CO 10kmol, CO2 10kmol, CH 4
1kmol, CO 1kmol, CO2 1kmol, CH 4
total, C 45kmol, C
2kmol, H 4kmol, H
total, H 5kmol, H 2 10kmol, CH 4
1kmol, H 2 1kmol, CH 4
total, H 50kmol, H
1 2 kmol, O2 1kmol, O2
O2in, fuel 25kmol, CO 10kmol, CO2 5kmol, O2
1kmol, CO 1kmol, CO2
O2in, fuel 27.5kmol, O2
1kmol, O2 1 4 kmol, O2
theo, O2 45kmol, C 50kmol, H 27.5kmol, O2
1kmol, C 1kmol, H
theo, O2 30kmol, O2
100kmol, air
theo, air 30kmol, O2
21kmol, O2
theo, air 142.8571kmol, air
C. Excess Oxygen or Excess Air - is the amount of O2 or air supplied above that of
theoretically required for complete combustion/oxidation of the combustibles in the fuel.
This is because in actual practice, theoretical O 2 or theoretical air is not sufficient to get
complete combustion. Supplying air in excess will therefore improve combustion efficiency.
There are several alternate ways to determine the percent excess air as indicated below:
x' s, O2 x' s, O2
% x' s, air 100 100
theo, O2 total, O2 sup plied x' s, O2
total, O2 sup plied theo, O2
% x' s, air 100
theo, O2
total, O2 sup plied theo, O2 x' s, O2
Note: Gaseous fuels require very little excess O 2, liquid fuels require more and solid fuels
require the maximum excess O2.
3. Combustion of Pure Carbon. 100 kg of pure C is burned. For each of the following
cases, calculate the composition of the combustion gases.
a) Theoretical amount of O2 is used; complete combustion
b) Theoretical amount of air is used; complete combustion
c) 25% excess air is used; complete combustion Flue Gas composition
theo O2: CO2
Given: theo air: CO2, N2
100 kg C
x’s air: CO2, N2, O2-free
b)
in the flue gas:
CO2 8.3333kmol, CO2
79kmol, N 2
N 2 8.3333kmol, O2 31.3491kmol, N 2
21kmol, O2
flue gas composition:
kmol percentage
CO2 8.3333 21%
N2 31.3491 79%
Total 39.6824 100%
c)
% x' s, O2 theo, O2 25 8.3333kmol, O2
x' s, O2 2.0833kmol, O2
100 100
O2 , sup plied 8.3333kmol, O2 2.0833kmol, O2 10.4166kmol, O2
in the flue gas:
4. Combustion of Pure Hydrocarbons. The following pure compounds are burned with
40% excess air. Find the composition of the flue gas if the combustion is complete.
a) C2H6
b) C6H6
c) C2H4
a) C2H6
b) C6H6
c) C2H4
4. Pure formaldehyde gas (CH2O) is burned completely in air, using 50% excess air.
a) What should be the Orsat analysis of the combustion gas?
b) What should be the Orsat analysis of the combustion gas if instead of excess air,
only enough were used to burn all the hydrogen to water, 25% of the carbon to
CO2 and the remaining 75% to CO, the combustion being conducted that no
oxygen gas whatever is left remaining in the combustion products.
Note: Orsat analysis - fuel gas composition excluding H2O and SO3
Given:
Flue Gas composition
a) CO2, N2, O2-free, H2O
b) CO, CO2, N2, H2O
CH2O
CH 2O O2 CO2 H 2O
Required: Orsat analysis
Solution: assume a basis of 100 kmol formaldehyde
a) using the mole ratios provided by the given balanced chemical equation
1kmol, O2
theo, O2 100kmol, CH 2O 100kmol, O2
1kmol, CH 2O
% x' s, O2 theo, O2 50 100kmol, O2
x' s, O2 50kmol, O2
100 100
O2 , sup plied 100kmol, O2 50kmol, O2 150kmol, O2
in the flue gas:
1kmol, CO2
CO2 100kmol, CH 2O 100kmol, CO2
1kmol, C2 H 6
79kmol, N 2
N 2 150kmol, O2 564.2857kmol, N 2
21kmol, O2
O2 free 50kmol, O2
Orsat analysis:
kmol percentage
CO2 100 14.0000%
N2 564.2857 79.0000%
O2-free 50 7.0000%
Total 714.2857 100%
1. 100 kmols of moist hydrogen gas containing 4% water by mole is burnt completely in a
furnace with 32% excess dry air.
a) Complete analysis
b) Orsat analysis
2. A furnace is charged with 100 kmols of fuel gas, the composition of which is: 50% CO,
30% H2, 5% CH4, 5% C2H6 and 10% O2. Dry air is supplied 50% in excess for combustion.
Assuming complete combustion.
EXPLAIN
To be able to translate your understanding of fuels, do the following activity.