Boiler Combustion Efficiency

To ensure complete combustion of the fuel used combustion chambers are supplied with
excess air. Excess air increase the amount of oxygen to the combustion and the combustion of
fuel.

 when fuel and oxygen from the air are in perfect balance - the combustion is said to
be stoichiometric
The combustion efficiency increases with increased excess air - until the heat loss in the excess
air is larger than the heat provided by more efficient combustion.

Excess air to achieve highest possible efficiency for some common fuels:

 5 - 10% for natural gas

 5 - 20% for fuel oil
 15 - 60% for coal
Carbon dioxide - CO2 - is a combustion product and the content of CO2 in a flue gas is an
important indication of the combustion efficiency.
 Optimal content of carbon dioxide - CO2 - after combustion is approximately 10% for natural gas
and approximately 13% for lighter oils.

Normal combustion efficiency for natural gas at different combinations of excess air and flue gas
temperatures are indicated below:

Combustion Efficiency (%)

Excess (%) Net Stack Temperature1) (oF)

Air Oxygen 200 300 400 500 600

9.5 2.0 85.4 83.1 80.8 78.4 76.0

15 3.0 85.2 82.8 80.4 77.9 75.4

28.1 5.0 84.7 82.1 79.5 76.7 74.0

44.9 7.0 84.1 81.2 78.2 75.2 72.1

81.6 10.0 82.8 79.3 75.6 71.9 68.2

1)
"Net stack temperature" is temperature difference between flue gas temperature inside the
chimney and room temperature outside the burner.
Flue Gas Loss with Oil Combustion
The relation between temperature difference in flue gas and supply air, the CO2 concentration in
the flue gas, and the efficiency loss in the flue gas oil combustion, is expressed below:

Example - Oil Combustion and Heat Loss in the Flue Gas

If

 the temperature difference between the flue gas leaving a boiler and the ambient supply
temperature is 300 oC, and
 the carbon dioxide measured in the flue gas is 10% - then,
from the diagram above

 the flue gas loss can be estimated to approximately 16%.