GASEOUS FUELS

Important gaseous fuels

 Methane (from coal beds) occur in nature
 Natural gas
 LPG
Gases made from petroleum
 Refinery gas
 Producer gas From solid fuel
 Water gas
 Coke oven gas
 Coal gas (from coal gasification)
 Wood gas
 advantages of gaseous fuels
• They can be conveyed easily through pipelines to the actual place of
need, thereby eliminating manual labour in transportation.
• They can be lighted at ease.
• They have high heat contents and hence help us in having higher
temperatures.
• They can be pre-heated by the heat of hot waste gases, thereby
affecting economy in heat.
• Their combustion can readily by controlled for change in demand
like oxidizing or reducing atmosphere, length flame, temperature,
etc.
• They are clean in use.
• They burn without any smoke and ashes.
• They are free from impurities found in solid and liquid fuels.
Disadvantages
• (a) Very large storage tanks are needed. (b) They are highly
inflammable, so chances of fire hazards in their use is high.
Natural gas
Mixture of paraffinic hydro carbons
Methane is main constituent
Types
 Dry natural gas (recoverable condensate < 15gm/m3)
 Wet natural gas (recoverable condensate > 50gm/m3)
Composition
CH4 96.91
C2H6 1.33
C3H8 0.19
C4H10 0.05
C5H12 0.02
CO2 0.82
N2 0.68
Natural gas(conti…)

Calorific value : 9000Kcal/Nm3

Specific gravity : 0.574

Uses
cooking
Domestic & industrial heating
Furnace & heater
For fertilizer production
LPG

 Mixture of propane & butane

 20% propane & 80% butane for LPG cylinder in industry
 10 % propane & 90 % butane for LPG cylinder in domestic

C.V. Sp. Gravity

 Pure Butane 30,680 Kcal/m3 2
 Pure Propane 23,670 Kcal/m3 1.52

Uses

 Cooking gas (in domestic cylinder)

 Industrial heating
Refinery gases
Obtained using distillation, cracking of
petroleum
Contains mainly paraffins, olefins, H2S &H2.

Composition
Propane + Propane 40-55%
Butane + Butane 30%
Ethylene + Ethane 8-12%
H2 6-8 %
H2S 6-8 %
Calorific value 20500 Kcal/Nm3
Sp. Gravity 1.35
Producer Gas
Mixture of CO + N2 (1: 2 by vol)
Produced by blowing air or mixture of air &
steam over hot bed of coal.
Bituminous, anthracite & coke are used as raw
materials
Composition depends on fuel, air, air + steam
& operating variables
General Range of products (from coal) % volume

CO 20-30
N2 46-55
H2 11-20
CO2 4-6
CH4 0-3
C.V 1250-1550Kcal/Nm3
Sp. Gravity 0.85-0.90
 Coal

Gas space Producer gas

CO +H2O CO2 + H2
Drying/ Carbonization zone
800 oC Reduction zone
C + CO2 2CO
CO +H2O CO2 + H2 (4) (-9840 kcal/ kmol
Shift conversion)

C +H2O CO + H2 (3) Endothermic)

C + 2H2O CO2 + 2H2
Boudouard Rxn)
1100 + oC C + CO2 2CO (2) Endothermic
Oxidation zone
C + O2 CO2 (1) Exothermic Rxn
∆H= -
Ash zone 97000Kcal/Kmol

Grate Air/ Air + Steam

Reaction Zones in fuel bed of gas producer
Ash zone:-The air & steam is preheated by ash zone.

Oxidation zone:- O2 in air reacts with carbon in the fuel. Due to

high heat of combustion of C to CO2 temp. reached by fuel in
this zone is highest.CO2 conc. is maximum at top of this zone
when co begins to appear.
Temp. :- 1100-1200oC

Reduction zone :- The gas entering this zone has a high content
of CO2 &H2O vapours.
In this zone, at high temperature of 1100-1200oC H2 & CO are
formed rapidly & CO2 & H2O vap. content fall.
The temp. falls in this zone to 800 oC
Drying/ Carbonization zone
Fresh fuel fed at top comes into contact with
the hot gases leaving the reduction zone. The
fuel gets dried and preheated thus adding water
vapours & carbonization gases to the gas
leaving producer.
Gas space
Heating Value of gas slightly decrease in gas
space due to Rxn:
CO +H2O CO2 + H2