GASEOUS FUELS 

• Gaseous fuels are hydrocarbons, hydrogen and carbon

monoxide mixtures present in gaseous state,
• NG may be found with or without crude oil.
• Gaseous fuel forms under high pressure along with
potential heat or light energy, exists under earth crust
• Readily distributable through pipe networks from generation
to consumption areas.
• Four main classes of Gaseous fuels :
(i) Natural gas and Liquified Petroleum Gas.
(ii) producer gas, (iii)  water gas (iv) coal gas.
• Main heat producing constituents are methane (CH4)
and hydrogen and possesses high calorific value.
 How Does Natural Gas Form?

• Natural gas is a fossil fuel, like coal and oil forms due to
microorganism of plants, animals etc. in millions years .
• Molecular decomposition of organic matters, (called
methanation process which occurs due to intense pressure
and heat )
• NG remained confined under earth or sea water in the form of
pockets.
NG may be contained under,
i. Permeable or sedimentary rocks, easy to recover,
ii. Non-permeable rocks such as shale gas i.e. difficult to access.
 NG Contains 60 to 90% CH4, along with other complex
hydrocarbons (rest are C2H6, C3H8, C4H10) CO2 , N2 and few ppm of
other contaminants e.g. He, S- compounds etc.
Comparison between solid, liquid and gaseous fuels
 Why Use Natural Gas?

Natural gas is used as

• Fuel for heating, cooking, electricity generation,
industry;
• Basic raw material for Production of various
chemicals, e.g., paints, fertilizer, plastic, anti-
freeze agent, etc.
• Gaseous fuels require far less excess air for
complete combustion.
Although the burning of natural gas produces CO2,
but usually considered much cleaner fossil fuel as
compared to Wood, coal or petroleum..
 Advantages of Natural Gas Use
“the best choice among the fossil fuel energy”

• Economy: Economical and convenient fuel for domestic and industrial

utilization specially in Gas-Fired Power plants
• Environment: Less pollutant as compared to other biomasses ,.
• Another important fact - Combustion of NG do not produce any
soot or sulfur dioxide.
• N.G. emits 45% less CO2 than coal and 30% less than oil.
• Easy transportation: via sea (tankers) / land (pipelines).
• Conversion to Hydrogen Fuel: - cheapest fossil fuel to
produce NH3, H2 .
 DISADVANTAGES OF NATURAL GAS

• Main disadvantages in using natural gas:

• Flammable and Toxic leakages may be extremely dangerous
and lethal .
• Environmental Impact: May contribute as a GHGs ,
• Explosive nature : leaks may cause of fire or
explosions.

• Keynote :
• Despite the disadvantages, NG is a remarkable utility to
process, transport and an efficient source
 USES NATURAL GAS 

i. Natural gas - Widely used in commercial sector to

heat buildings and water, to operate refrigeration
and to cook, to dry clothes, and to provide outdoor
lighting.
ii. Natural gas - a favorite fuel in combined heat and
power systems
iii. Natural gas - extensively used for Production of
several chemicals and polymers
 Natural
Gasoline
2%
Butanes Cont.
4% 4%
Propane
9%

Methane
Ethane 68%
13%

TYPICAL UNPROCESSED GAS

 Treatment of Natural Gas

Certain processes have to be carried out.

1. Separation of liquid and gas.
Liquid hydrocarbon may be present in the wells along with gas.
2. Dehydration. Removal of water is necessary due to:
• Corrosive nature
• Hydrates may form which will plug the flow.
• Water also reduce the calorific value of the gas.
5. Desulfurization.
Presence of H2S is undesirable which makes the gas sour and
need to be sweetened.
 Types of Gaseous Fuels
:Based on the source and Manufacturing:

2 broad classes of fuel gases, irrespective of chemical composition,

1. Natural gas and petroleum gases
2. Manufactured fuel gases
 NATURAL GAS,
• Primarily composed of CH4and extracted from deposits under the earth.
• Natural gas may be combined with hydrogen to form a mixture known
as HCNG. CNG,LNG, NGC, SNG, Bio-SNG
• Additional fuel gases obtained during refining of crude oils; liquefied
petroleum gas composed of Propane, Butane,
MANUFACTURED FUEL GASES
• Produced synthetically by a series of processes,
• Gasification of biomass,
• Gas Obtained as a by-product
Manufactured fuel gases include:
Coal gas, Water gas, Producer gas, Syngas, Wood gas
Hydrogen (uncompressed or compressed) , Biogas
Blast furnace gas, Acetylene
 Natural gas may be Compressed i.e. (CNG).
Syngas, or synthetic gas (SNG) mixture of H2, CO2
, CO,.
• SNG is artificially produced
from coal, biomass,
petroleum coke, or solid
waste.
• Synthetic natural gas (
SNG), is used to produce
of methanol, NH3 and many
other chemical and
polymers.
 Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG)
• LPG - flammable liquefied mixture of hydrocarbons,
• LPG - used for heating, cooking, vehicle’s fuel and raw
material for chemical & petrochemical industries.
LPG – Technical aspects
• LPG is a petroleum-derived, [Propane & Butane (95/5)]
• LPG is stored as a liquid in pressurized containers.
• The containers may be cylindrical, horizontal or spherical,
typically designed & manufactured according to ASME codes, 
• LPG filling in the containers up to 80–85% of their capacity to
allow for thermal expansion
•  LPG evaporates quickly at NTP and is usually supplied in
pressurized steel vessels,
 LPG – Characteristics
• LPG - slightly variable properties depending upon the
composition of propane (C3H8) & butane (C4H10).
• LPG - calorific value ~ 46.1 MJ/kg as compared to other
fuels 42.5 MJ/kg to 45.0 MJ/kg, depending upon Octane
number of gasoline*.
• However, its energy density per unit volume ~ 26 MJ/L,
i.e., lower than petrol & other fuel oils,
• Relative density of LPG is lower (about 0.5–0.58 kg/L), as
compared to 0.71–0.77 kg/L for gasoline.
• LPG at atmospheric pressure and temperature is a gas
which is 1.5 to 2.0 times heavier than air.
• LPG - Ignition temperature is 450 0C
 Typical properties of industrial LPG

Gas Propane Butane

Density (kg/m3) 1.7-1.9 2.3-2.5

Gross calorific value (MJ/m3) 96 122
Boiling point (℃ at 1 bar) -45 0

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 Octane Number {ON}
• ON - A measure of auto ignition resistance of gasoline
(petrol) and other fuels used in spark-ignition internal
combustion engines. OR
• ON - A measure of anti-detonation of a gasoline or fuel.

 Octane Number Definition - “ the volume percent

of iso-octane in a mixture of iso-octane and n-
heptane. 
Octane number is in between 0 and 100.
An 87-octane gasoline means that the
characteristics are same as a mixture of 87 vol-%
iso-octane and 13 vol-% n-heptane.
 
 Flammability of Gaseous Fuels
• Flammability range of Gaseous fuels ~ 5 to 15%.
• Flammability means – Gas & Air mixture have natural gas < 5
% or > 15.6 % would not support combustion.
• The minimum and maximum concentration by volume of in an
oxidant mixture, will burn on introduction of flame,

Flammability Limits
 2 limits of flammability, i.e., upper & lower flammability
limits
 UFL & LFL can be determined experimentally based on
Chemical kinetics of the combustion reactions
 Combustion occurs on Completion of Fire Triangle.
 Heat, O2 and Fuel (ignition temperature) to start and to
continue the combustion process. 20
 Fire Triangle or v or combustion triangle
• 3 components of this triangle are needed to ignite and
sustain a fire. i.e., heat, fuel and oxygen.
• If any of these components is removed, the fire triangle will
collapse, and the fire will be extinguished.
 Upper and Lower Flammability Limits
• (LFL) Below this level, the mixture is too “lean” to burn.
• (UFL) The maximum concentration of a gas or vapor that
will cause an explosion,
 The limits are affected by the composition of the
Gaseous mixture, temperature and pressure,
 Usually determined at atmospheric pressure and 25℃.

 Typical values for some gaseous fuels are:

Fuel Lower Explosion Limit (LEL) % Upper Explosion Limit (UEL) %

Methane 5 15
Propane 2 10
Hydrogen 4 74
Carbon monoxide 13 74

22
 Natural Gas Reserves in Pakistan
• Pakistan holds 19 of proven gas reserves as of 2017,
• Pakistan has proven reserves equivalent to 12.0 times its
annual consumption.

Reported reserves in Pakistan in June 2020

• Gas Reserves: 24,700,000 Tcf 
• Gas Consumption: 1,436,261 Tcf
• Gas Production: 1,454,978 Tcf
• Gas Imports: 48,382 Tcf
• Pakistan imports 3 to 8 % of its natural gas consumption
• Tcf - trillion cubic feet
• The Sui gas field is the biggest natural
gas field, located near Sui in Baluchistan.
• The gas field was discovered in the late 1952 and the
commercial exploitation of the field began in 1955.
• Qadirpur Gas Field. Located in Sindh, i.e., 2nd largest
gas field after Sui,.
• The field was developed in three phases, increasing its
capacity from the initial 235 MMscfd to 500 MMscfd.
• MMscfd - Million standard cubic feet per day
Gas Production Vs Gas Consumption
In Pakistan
Three main strategies to bridge the gap between sully
and demand.

GUSA stands for Gulf South Asia

 Burning Velocity
An important parameter to design of premixed burners.
 The burning velocity - “ @ at which a flat flame is
propagated in a static medium, during entire burring of
Air – Gas mixture,
 To determine suitability of burning velocity that the flame
looks like a blue flame of Bunsen burner’s flame.

30
 In aerated mode, the flame has a distinctive bright blue
cone in wavy form starting from the edge of the tube.
 safety flame of Burner

 Yellow safety flame - Safe because it can

easily detected that burning is faulty.
 Not used for heating because it creates
soot.
 Silent blue flame - Suitable for gentle
heating and is silent and not very visible.
 Roaring blue flame - Strongest heating
setting and is made of two cones
32
 If U represents the mean velocity of the gas-air
mixture at the end of the tube and α is the half-angle
of the cone at the top of the tube, then the burning
velocity S can be obtained simply from:
S = U sin (α)
 This method underestimates the value of S for a
number of reasons, including the velocity distribution
across the end of the tube and heat losses from the
flame to the rim of the tube.

34
 More accurate measurements are made with a
burner design which produces a flat, laminar flame.
 Some typical burning velocities are:
Fuel Burning velocity (m/s)

Methane 0.34
Propane 0.40
Town gas 1.0
Hydrogen 2.52
Carbon monoxide 0.43

35
 Burning velocity should not be confused
with the speed of propagation of the flame
front relative to a fixed point, which is
generally referred to as flame speed.
 In this case, the speed of the flame front is
accelerated by the expansion of the hot
gas behind the flame.

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 5.3 Wobbe Number
 This characteristic concerns the
interchangeability of one gaseous fuel with
another in the same equipment.
 In very basic terms, a burner can be
viewed in terms of the gas being supplied
through a restricted orifice into a zone
where ignition and combustion take place.

37
 The three important variables affecting the
performance of this system are the size of
the orifice, the pressure across it (or the
supply pressure if the combustion zone is
at ambient pressure) and the calorific
value of the fuel, which determines the
heat release rate.
 If two gaseous fuels are to be
interchangeable, the same supply
pressure should produce the same heat 38
 If we consider the restriction to
behave like a sharp-edged
orifice plate, and if the cross-
sectional area of the orifice
(A0) is much less than the
cross-sectional area of the
supply pipe then the mass flow
rate of fuel is given by:
m
= CdA0 (2ρ△p)0.5
or in terms of volume flow rate:
0.5
 2 p 
V  Cd A0  
  

where Cd is a discharge
coefficient
ρ is the density of fuel

39
 The heat release rate, Q, will be obtained by
multiplying the volume flow rate by the volumetric
calorific value of the fuel:
0.5
 2P 
Q  CVCd A0  
  
 If we have two fuels denoted as 1 and 2, we would
expect the same heat release from the same orifice
and the same pressure drop △p, if
0.5 0.5
 2p   2p 
CV1Cd A0    CV C A
2 d 0 
 1   2 
CV1 CV2
i.e.  0.5
1 2
0.5

40
 This ratio is known as the Wobbe number of a
gaseous fuel and is defined as:
Gross calorific value (MJ/m3 )
 Relative density (air=1)
0.5

 Some typical Wobbe numbers are:

Fuel Wobbe number (MJ/m3)

Methane 55
Propane 78
Natural gas 50
Town gas 27
41
 The significant difference between the values for natural gas and
town gas illustrates why appliance conversions were necessary
when the UK changed its mains-distributed fuel in 1966.
 Example 1:
Calculate the Wobbe number for a by-product gas from an
industrial process which has the following composition by
volume:

H2 12%
CO 29%
CH4 3%
N2 52%
CO2 4%
42
 Solution:
The gross calorific values are:

CO 11.85 MJ/m3
CH4 37.07 MJ/m3
H2 11.92 MJ/m3
 The calorific value of the mixture:
CV=(0.12×11.92)+(0.29×11.85)+(0.03×37.07)=5.98
MJ/m3
43
 Environmental effects
• Burning LPG releases CO2, a greenhouse gas including small
%age of CO,
• LPG burns more cleanly than higher molecular weight
hydrocarbons because it releases less particulates
• Green Finance and Investment Promoting Clean Urban Public
Transportation and Green Investment , internationally.
• LPG can be mixed with air to produce a synthetic natural gas
(SNG) for safe operations,
• LPG/air mixing ratios average 60/40, 
• Pollution control devices to control flue gaseous and aerosol
pollutants. 
• People can be exposed for short time to LPG in the workplace
by breathing it in, skin contact, and eye contact.
• Permissible exposure limit as per OSHA standards (Occupational Safety
and Health Administration) for
LPG exposure in the workplace as
1000 ppm (1800 mg/m3) over an 8-hour workday which is about
17 percent less as compared to natural gas.