Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
CANTAL 2018
Fuels
• Fuels can be solid, liquid, or gaseous.
• Coal is the most prominent fuel used for power purposes however,
cleaner fuel such as fuel oil or gas are in trend to be used to lessen
the contamination of the atmosphere. Better methods of coal
combustion are also being develop to aid this problem.
CANTAL 2018
Solid Fuels
• Any solid material that can be used to produce energy and heat. This is
predominantly achieved through burning materials, and the most common
types are coal, wood, charcoal and wood pellets.
CANTAL 2018
Classification of Coal
• Anthracite (Hard coal)
• subjected to high pressure and heat
• most compressed and hardest coal
• being a hard coal, it contains greater potential to
produce heat energy than softer, geologically
"newer" coal
• the most brittle among coal types and the Photo source:
cleanest burning coal https://www.indiamart.com/proddetail/anthracite-
coal-10910092297.html
CANTAL 2018
Classification of Coal
• Bituminous (Hard coal)
• contains a tar-like substance called bitumen
• represents more than 90 percent of all the coal consumed
in the United States
• when burned, it produces a high white flame
• produce excessive smoke and soot -- particulate matter
• has high sulfur content
• contains the mineral pyrite, which serves as a host for
impurities such as arsenic and mercury which lead to
hazardous emissions Photo source: https://dir.indiamart.com/hyderabad/bituminous-
• has two types: thermal and metallurgical coal.html
CANTAL 2018
Classification of Coal
• Sub-bituminous (Low rank)
• considered black coal, even though its
appearance varies from bright black to dull dark
brown
• an intermediate between lignite and bituminous
(hard and strong to soft and brittle consistency)
• widely used for generating steam power and
industrial purposes Photo source: https://futurelibraries.net/uses-and-properties-of-
• not stable when exposed to air– it disintegrates bituminous-coal/
CANTAL 2018
Classification of Coal
• Lignite (Low rank)
• sometimes called “brown coal”
• lowest quality and most crumbly coal
• use the process coal gasification to
create synthetic natural gas that delivers more
power
Photo source: https://www.indiamart.com/proddetail/lignite-
coal-13937457891.html
CANTAL 2018
Classification of Coal
CANTAL 2018
Test for Solid Fuels
1. Proximate analysis is used to determine the percentages of
moisture, volatile matter, ash and fixed carbon (by difference) in the
coal as standardized by A.S.T.M.
CANTAL 2018
Storage for Solid Fuels
• Packing is the most efficient way to store coal to avoid too rapid
weathering and spontaneous combustion, by reducing air space.
CANTAL 2018
Powdered Coal
• Advantages:
• has high thermal efficiency with which it can be
burned,
• has low cost of operation and maintenance
• has excellent flexibility
• Disadvantage:
Photo source: https://dir.indiamart.com/impcat/coal-
powder.html
CANTAL 2018
Coke
• fuel with a high carbon content and few
impurities
• they are grey, hard, and porous
• made by heating coal in the absence of air
• derived from destructive distillation of low-ash,
low-sulfur bituminous coal
• a very fine fuel but too expensive for industrial
use Photo source:https://www.indiamart.com/proddetail/hard-coke-
coal-14641998473.html
• commonly used fuel in blacksmithing
• used in special cases such as blast-furnace
operation
CANTAL 2018
Liquid Fuels
• Fuel oil, coal, tar, tar oil, kerosene, benzol, alcohol, gasoline
• Fuel oil is the only important commercial liquid fuel used for power
purposes. It is the portion of the crude oil that cannot be economically
converted by the refiner to the higher-priced products such as gasoline.
• Classifies according to properties set by A.S.T.M.
• Flash point
• Pour point
• Percentage of water and sediment
• Carbon residue
• Ash
• Distillation temperature
• Viscosity
CANTAL 2018
Gaseous Fuels
• Gas is burned as a source of heat- in domestic installations and
occasionally in industry, especially where it is obtained as a by-
product
• Blast furnace gases are the best example
• The other gases that may be used for power generation are natural
gas and liquefied petroleum gas when available and the
manufactured gases such as coke-oven gas, producer gas, and water
gas
CANTAL 2018
Gasoline and Other Fuels
• Most widely used fuel in the society
• A complex mixture, typically containing more than 100 different
chemical compounds
• The exact composition of gasoline varies somewhat depending on
factors
• including the grade of gas, geographic location, and time of year
• the predominant
• compounds are hydrocarbons– most are alkanes
CANTAL 2018
Alkanes – A review
• compounds whose carbon atoms are linked together by single bonds
• the general formula for any alkane is CnH2n+2, where n is an integer
• may have multiple possible ways of connectivity – isomers
CANTAL 2018
Stoichiometry
• used to express quantitative relationships in chemistry
CANTAL 2018
Stoichiometry
• used to express quantitative relationships in chemistry
CANTAL 2018
Obtaining Ratios from a Balanced Chemical
Equation
1 mol CH : 2 mol O
4 2
1 mol CH : 1 mol CO
4 2
1 mol CH : 2 mol H O
4 2
2 mol O : 2 mol H O
2 2
CANTAL 2018
Example
In the combustion of methane, how many moles of O2 are required if
6.75 mol of CH4 is to be completely consumed?
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Conversion to mass, moles, molecules
mass no. of
molecules
CANTAL 2018
Alternative Fuels and Fuel Additives
• Reasons for having fuel additives:
• improving engine performance
• reducing undesirable engine emissions
• reducing dependence on imported petroleum products
CANTAL 2018
Improving Engine Performance
• Good performance = high compressibility of gasoline = high octane
number
• Octane number is the measure of how highly the gas can be
compressed in the engine cylinder before it will spontaneously ignite
• This allows an engine to operate at higher compression without
unwanted “knocking”
• one way to achieve a higher octane number is to increase the fraction
of octane in a particular gasoline
• However, there are a number of ways to improve compressibility that
are easier and cheaper than boosting the actual octane content
CANTAL 2018
Improving Engine Performance
Tetraethyl lead
CANTAL 2018
Improving Engine Performance
Ethanol
CANTAL 2018
Improving Engine Performance
Methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE)
CANTAL 2018
Calorific Value
• same as energy content or the heat of combustion
• Standard heat of combustion is the energy liberated when a
substance X undergoes complete combustion, with excess of oxygen
at standard conditions (25 deg C and 1 bar).
CANTAL 2018