FUELS AND COMBUSTION

Introduction
Fuels is a combustible substance containing large amounts of carbon which on proper
combustion gives large amount of energy which can be used for industrial as well as domestic
purposes.
Example:
Wood,charcoal,petroleum,diesel,producer gas,oil gas
During the process of combustion, carbon and hydrogen combine with oxygen with a liberation
of heat.

REQUIREMENTS OF GOOD FUEL

1.it should have a high calorific value
2.it should have a low moisture content
3.low content of non-combustible matters
4.free from harmful gases
5.easy to transport and available at low cost

Fuels can be divided into two types:

1.primary
2.secondary
Primary and secondary fuels are found in nature and they can be divided into three types.
A.solid
B.liquid
C.gases

FOSSIL FUELS
The fuels which have been derived from fossil remains of plants and animal life is called fossil
fuels.
They are found in the earth’s crust and the fuels on combustion release large amounts of
energy.
The heat energy can be utilised for domestic and industrial purposes.
CALORIFIC VALUE:
UNITS
SOLID FUELS

1.COAL:
Coal is an important primary fossil fuel found on the earths crust which has been formed under
alteration of vegetatative matter under some conditions.
The process of conversion of lignite to anthracite is called metamorphism of coal
wood->peat->lignite->sub-bituminous->bituminous->anthracite

Classification of coal:
1.PEAT:
Peat is the first step of formation of coal.
It is brownish fibres
Its calorific is 4000-5400 k cal/kg

2.LIGNITE
It is the intermediate stage in the process of coal formation
Due to high volatile content,it burns with long smoky flames
Its carorific is 6500-7000 k cal/kg

3.BITUMINOUS COAL
Sub bituminous is black and bituminous is brittle
Its calorific value is 7000-8500 k cal/kg

4.ANTHRACITE COAL
It is hard and burns without smoke
Its calorific value is above is above 8500 k cal/kg

PROXIMATE ANALYSIS

It means finding out weight percentage of moisture, volatile

matter, fixed carbon and ash in coal
o This analysis gives the approximate composition of the main
constituents of coal.
o It is useful in deciding its utilization for a particular industrial
Use.
SIGNIFIANCE
1.moisture content:high moisture content is not preffered beacause:
a. it decreases the calorific value.
b. it lenghtens the time of heating
c. it quenches fire in the furnace
2.Volatile content:high amount of volatile content is not preffered beacause:
a. It decrease the calorific value.
b. It has low ignition temperature
c. Will burn up soon and very easily
3.Ash:high ash content is not required
a. It decreases the calorific value
b. It increases transporting and handling expences
c. It is much harder
The purest form of carbon is fixed carbon. It has very high calorific value and high carbon
content.
II. Ultimate Analysis
o It means finding out the weight percentage of carbon,hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen and
sulphur of the pure coal free from moisture and inorganic constituents.
o This analysis gives the elementary constituents of coal.
o It is useful to the designer of coal burning equipments and
auxiliaries.
Determination of Nitrogen in coal
Nitrogen estimation is done by Kjeldahl’s method. A
known amount of powdered coal is heated with con. H2SO4 and K2SO4 in a long necked flask
(called Kjeldahl’s flask), there by converting nitrogen of coal to ammonium sulphate.When the
clear solution is obtained (i.e. the whole nitrogen is converted into ammonium sulphate), it is
heated with 50% NaOH solution.

The ammonia thus formed is distilled over and is

absorbed in a known quantity of standard 0.1N HCl solution. The
volume of unused 0.1 N HCl is then determined by titrating
against standard NaOH solution.
Thus, the amount of acid neutralized by liberated
ammonia from coal is determined.

SIGNIFICANCE OF ULTIMATE ANALYSIS

1.carbon and hydrogen
a. Higher the carbon content, the more better the fuel is.
b. It will have higher calorific value
c. Higher % of carbon reduces the size of chamber required.
2.nitrogen
a. Nitrogen is useless for fuel that is why nitrogens quantity should be less in a fuel.

3.sulphur
a. The sulphur content actually increases the calorific value of but the by products of
sulphur is sulphur dioxide and sulphur trioxide actually is harmful and may have
corrosion effects.
4.oxygen
a. The oxygen content should be low because lower the oxygen , higher the calorific value.
b. The oxygen presence in the fuel increases the moisture content.

CARBONISATION OF COAL

Heating of coal in the absence of air is called carbonisation of coal.

i. Caking of coal
When coal is heated strongly, the mass becomes soft and coherent, then it is called caking of
coal.
ii. Coking of coal
Otherwise if the mass produced is hard, porous and strong then it is called coking of coal.
All the caking coals do not form strong, hard and coherent residue coke. Hence all the caking
coals are not necessarily coking coal but all the coking coals have to be necessarily caking in
nature.

METALLURGICAL COKE:
When bituminous coal is heated , the volatile matter excapes out and it becomes lustrous and
shiny.
Properties or characteristics of metallurgical coke
Good coke for metallurgy posse
PURITY:Low moisture and ash content are desirable in metallurgical coke. It must contain
minimum % of P and S.
ii) Porosity:High porosity is desirable in furnace cokes to obtain high rates of combustion.
iii) Strength :The coke should be hard and strong to withstand pressure of ore, flux etc in the
furnace.
iv) Size :Metallurgical coke must be uniform and medium size.
v) Calorific value:The Calorific Value of coke should be high.
vi) Combustibility :It should burn easily.
vii) Reactivity It refers to its ability to react with O2 , CO2, steam and air.
The metallurgical coke must have low reactivity.
viii) Cost :It must be cheap and readily available.

Why is Coke superior as a Metallurgical fuel?

i) Coke is stronger and more porous than coal.
ii) Coke contains lesser amount of sulphur than coal.
iii) Coke does not contain much volatile matter

BIOFUELS:
Biofuels refer to the solid, liquid and gaseous fuels that are from living organisms and their
waste products.
The organic waste matter undergoes harvesting and preprocesses to form cellulose.The
cellulose is then converted into sugar by enzymes.the microbes ferment the sugar molecules
and convert them into ethanol.The ethanol is used as biofuels in automobiles and industries.
The carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere due to consumption of fuel is taken up by the
plants along with solar energy to form the biomass.

BIOMASS
Biomass is an accumulation of organic waste materials produced by living things.The biomass
sources are wood,agricultural residue from the harvesting crops, saw mill waste, sugar refinery
waste,municipal refuse ,etc.

BIODIESEL
It is produced from the process of transesterification of vegetable oils such as sunflower seed
oil,palm oil,peanut oil,soya bean oil, rapeseed oil,mustard oil,etc., that contain triglycerides. The
transesterification process involves treatment of the triglycerides in these oils with excess of
methanol in the presence of catalysts to give monomethyl esters of long chain fatty acids and
glycerine.

BIOGAS
Biogas is produced by the degradation of biological matter by the bacterial action in the
absence of free oxygen. For example, natural gas is a biogas which results after long period of
decay of animal and vegetative matter brought about by bacteria in the presence of high
pressure and optimum temperature.

Petroleum
Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring brown to black coloured viscous oil formed under
the crust of earth, on shore or off shore. Chemically it is a mixture of various hydrocarbons with
small amounts of N, O, S compounds.
The approximate composition of petroleum is
C = 80 - 84%
H = 10 - 14 %
S = 0.1 - 0.5 %
N+ O = Negligible
Classification
Petroleum is classified on the basis of various types of hydrocarbons.
i) Paraffin based oil - Contains mainly n - alkanes
(Ex : Pennsylvanian and gulf coast oil)
ii) Asphalt base oil - Contains aromatic and alicyclic hydrocarbons.
(Ex: Californian oil)
iii) Mixed base oil - Contains higher proportion of aromatics and naphthenes (cyclo alkanes).
(Ex : Mexican oil)

Refining of Petroleum (or) Crude Oil

Definition
The process of removing impurities and separating out the oil into various fractions having
different boiling points is known as refining of petroleum.