Department of Chemical Engineering

University of San Carlos Technological Center

Nasipit, Talamban, Cebu City

ChE 322L
Chemical Calculations Laboratory 1

Different Types of Liquid and Solid Fuels

Date Submitted:
November 23, 2016

Submitted to:
Engr. Alchris W. Go, PhD
Instructor, ChE 322L

Submitted by:
Comendador, Marvin John
Go, James Nevin
Pestao, Jason Moen
Pintor, Kei Jaya
Siasar, Christine Anne
Solatorio, Mark Vincent

Petroleum Based Liquid Fuels

Gasoline
Gasoline is derived from crude oil by desalting first for it contains salt in the tiny droplet
of water which forms a water oil imulsion. Desaltation of crude oil is done first where the water
is separated through electrostatic water separation. The desalted oil is then introduced to steam
in a steam distillation column. The steam residue is then introduced to a vacuum distillation
tower. Then the Heavy SR Naphtha which is the product of distillation undergoes hydrotreating
using a specific catalyst to remove impurities such as sulphur, nitrogen, oxy-compounds, chlorocompounds, aromatics, waxes, and metals using hydrogen. The hydrotreated substance then
undergoes catalytic reforming where a special catalyst platinum metal supported on silica or
silica base alumina is used to restructure naphtha fraction into aromatic isoparaffins. The
reformate then undergoes sweetening and blending, and the gasoline you used to run your
automotive, and aviation vehicles is obtained (Mohamed A. Fahim, 2010).
Crude Oil

Desalting

Heavy SR Naphtha
Atmospheric Distillation
Hydrotreating

Sweetening & Blending Reformate Catalytic Reforming

Gasoline

Diesel
Diesel is derived from crude oil by desalting first for it contains salt in the tiny droplet of
water which forms a water oil imulsion. Desaltation of crude oil is done first where the water is
separated through electrostatic water separation. The desalted oil is then introduced to steam in
a steam distillation column. The steam residue is then introduced to a vacuum distillation tower.
The middle distillate then undergoes blending and sweetening. Thus, diesel is acquired
(Mohamed A. Fahim, 2010).

Crude Oil

Desalting

Middle
Distillate

Sweetening & Blending

Diesel

Kerosene
Kerosene is derived from crude oil by desalting first for it contains salt in the tiny droplet
of water which forms a water oil imulsion. Desaltation of crude oil is done first where the water
is separated through electrostatic water separation. The desalted oil is then introduced to steam
in a steam distillation column. The steam residue is then introduced to a vacuum distillation
tower. The middle distillate then undergoes catalytic cracking where a zeolite is used as a
catalyst. Finally the cracked liquid undergoes blending and sweetening. Thus kerosene is then
formed (Mohamed A. Fahim, 2010).

Crude Oil

Desalting

Middle DistillateCatalytic Cracking

Kerosene

Blending & Sweetening

Renewable-Liquid Fuels
Natural Solid Fuels
Wood
A renewable source, is not an important industrial fuel today. However, its use continues
in some rural areas where it is often supplemented with liquid propane. In some
underdeveloped countries, wood is still the principal source of energy. Dry wood contains from
1% to 12% moisture whereas green wood contains from 26% to 50% water. The resinous
woods, like pine or cedar, yield about 18.5 MJ/kg of air-dried wood or, allowing for the moisture
content, about 21 MJ/kg on a dry weight basis. Hardwoods have a heating value of about 19.4
MJ/kg. The energy available in present forest stocks are estimated to be equivalent to about
27x109 t of coal or about 2/3 of the equivalent oil reserves. (Schobert, 1989)
Wood-burning fireplaces have become a popular form of heating in the past few years.
The normal open hearth fireplace is not an efficient producer of heat since its draft sends most
of the hot air up the chimney, creating a partial vacuum pulling cold air into the home. The
recent introduction of glass doors to close in the fire and the introduction of outside air to the fire
for the combustion process has improved the efficiency of the fireplace, especially with forced
air circulation around the fire chamber. (Nastny, 2010).
Open fires, however, are a source of pollution since the smoke produced contains large
quantities of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons such as benzo(a)pyrene, a carcinogen also

found in cigarette smoke. In some communities, it has been necessary to restrict the burning of
wood because of the resulting air pollution. (Nastny, 2010)
Wood Fuel Process:

Wood

Chopping

Heat Energy

Fire in
furnace

Peat
Has been used as a form of energy for at least 2 000 years. The raw peat which may
contain as much as 95 percent water, must initially be drained to release as much free water as
possible and to give sufficient bearing strength for the peat to carry men and machines. The
peat surface is cleared of vegetation and is cambered to give run-off and to provide an area on
which the processed peat can be dried by wind and sun. The spacing of the drains depends on
the production method, but lies in the range 15-50 m. Drained bogs usually have a moisture
content of 89-91 percent.
When the peat swamp is sufficiently drained production can commence. In temperate regions,
this takes 5 to 7 years. Under a hot tropical climate, the initial drainage period could possibly be
much shorter. There is as yet little experience but there are indications that a 2-year drainage
period might be sufficient.
Peat Extraction Technology

Following technologies are presently used for peat extraction:

1. Milling method
2. Sod peat extraction

Milling Method:
Milling

Mixing

Ridging

Harvesting

This is a fully mechanized process involving:

Milling
The top 0.5-1.5 cm layer of peat is milled or pulverized in beds commonly 20-40 m wide but up
to 3 km in length.
Mixing

The milled peat layer is mixed and turned by spoon harrows until the harvesting moisture of 4050 percent is reached. The number of harrowings necessary obviously depends on the weather,
2-3 days is commonly sufficient, but in unstable weather it can take weeks.
Ridging
The milled peat is collected into one pile or ridge in the centre of each field.
Harvesting
The peat is put into stockpiles.
Lignite
is a fuel intermediate in composition between peat and coal. Large, accessible deposits
occur in South Dakota, and there are significant deposits in seven other states. Estimated
reserves are 4.07x10^11 t representing 59% of the present bituminous coal reserve and 104%
of the subbituminous reserve. This material is not widely used at present, although a
commercial barbecue briquette process is based on it, but it is potentially of great value. Some
lignite contains significant amounts of uranium. (Austin, 1984)
Lignite process:

Mine

Wood fuels

Mixing

Pelletizing

Packaging

are defined as all types of biofuels originating from woody biomass, where the
original composition of the wood is preserved and unaltered from its original form. Wood
fuels are specified by major traded forms and properties like firewood, log wood, wood
chips, wood pellets and wood briquettes and it can also specified by the main sources
of wood fuel like forests, plantations, and other virgin wood, and also by-products and
residues from the wood processing industry. Wood has been used as a source of fuel
for millennia and is still used in households around the world. Wood fuels can be
characterized by their moisture content and its humidity. The net calorific value of dry
wood of different species varies within a very narrow interval, from 18.5 to 19 MJ per
Kg. In conifers it is 2 percent higher than in broad-leaved trees. This difference is due
especially to the higher lignin content, and partly also to the higher resin, wax and oil
content present in conifers. Compared to cellulose (17.2-17.5 MJ per kg) and
hemicellulose (16 MJ per kg), lignin has a higher energy content (26-27 MJ per kg).
Some variability in the anhydrous calorific value is also due to the slight variability in
hydrogen (H) content and to the comparatively much wider variability in ash contents.
Wood biomass is a renewable and CO2 neutral source of energy, which, if used in a
sustainable and efficient way can contribute to a cleaner environment. Wood is the most
important source of energy for the majority of households; the main form of wood fuel
used in the region today is wood logs. Wood pellets are used mainly in bigger towns
(urban areas), while wood chips are slowly entering the market.
Biomass
is organic material that is plant or animal based, including but not limited to
dedicated energy crops, agricultural crops and trees, food, feed and fiber crop residues,
aquatic plants, alga, forestry and wood residues, agricultural waste, processing
byproducts and other non-fossil organic matter. Biomass can be used as a source of
energy and it most often refers to plants or plant-based materials that are not used for
food or feed, and are specifically called lignocellulose biomass. Biomass was the first

form of energy that was harnessed by humans in the form of wood being burned.
Biomass is not only used by humans, but all other animals use biomass to get their
energy for living. The biomass we use for fuel includes wood, wood waste, straw,
manure, sugar cane, and many other byproducts from a variety of agricultural
processes. When burned, biomass does release carbon dioxide (CO2), a greenhouse
gas. But when biomass crops are grown, an equivalent amount of carbon dioxide is
consumed through photosynthesis. Ethanol, another biomass fuel, is an alcohol distilled
mostly from corn. For the last twenty-five years, it has been blended with gasoline for
use in cars in the USA. Using ethanol in gasoline means we don't burn quite as much
fossil fuel in our cars. Historically the kernels of the corn have been used to produce
ethanol. At the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, CO
researchers are finding ways to turn the rest of the corn plant into ethanol.

Figure 2 - Producing energy from biomass

Figure 1 Production of Wood Fuel

Biomass can be used in place of coal in many power plants. The biomass can be
burned in the furnaces to heat water and produce steam to turn a turbine. The
byproducts of burning are CO2 and ash. New biomass crops being planted to maintain
the supply use the CO2. The ash is sent to the farmers to use as a fertilizer.

Artificial Solid Fuels

Wood Charcoal
Wood charcoal is derived from its raw material itself which is wood. Wood itself can be a fuel
but due to findings that the charcoal of wood is better than it originally was, wood is turned to
charcoal rather than use wood directly in combustion. Charcoal has a HHV of 33kJ/g while
wood only has 17 kJ/g. Just like any other charcoal, wood charcoal is used for smoke-free
cooking (Sardar, 2008).
Peat Charcoal
Peat charcoal is made from peat moss which then converted to charcoal in a similar way
wood charcoal is produced. This can be used in fuels for steel works or smokeless combustion
in boiler plants (Fuchsman, 2012).
Conventional way of producing peat and wood charcoals is the through simple pyrolysis as
shown below.

Lignite Briquettes
Lignite briquettes are the classic fuel for traditional solid-fuel appliances like automatic stoves,
cooking stoves and stand-alone stoves. Today, they are frequently used in combination with
wood in modern solid-fuel appliances (Bannerman Company Ltd., 2016).
Lignites can be briquetted by the application of pressure alone, without the use of binders such
as tar or pitch, provided that the lignite is at optimum moisture content (Schobert, 1995).

Lignite
Stockpil
e

Crusher

Mixer

Briquet
te Press
Machin
e

Dryer

Lignite
Briquet
te

Figure 1 General briquetting process for lignite briquettes

Lignite Coke
Formed coke of high strength has been made using a lignite as the sole source material.
Chemical action of elemental oxygen during 200 C curing in air is a virtually indispensable
precursor to the development of significant carbonized strength (Taylor & Coban, 1987).
Lignite coke is marketed for the following applications: increasing the proportion of scrap in steel
converters; carburization and slag foaming in electric steel mills; for pre-deoxidization when
tapping the steel melt; as carburizing agent in oxygen steel mills (both for basic carburization
during converter tapping and for fine carburization in secondary metallurgy; as reduction agent,
eg for chromium recovery from the slag; as energy source for increasing the productivity of a
UHP arc furnace; for treating sludge, dust and other residual materials with the aim of returning
them to the production process, eg in sintering, melting and reduction processes ((RBB), 2011).

Figure 1 General production of lignite semicoke from oil shale

Photo taken from: Kiviter Technology (Viru Keemia Grupp AS, 2014)
Coke
Coking coal is converted to coke by driving off impurities to leave almost pure carbon. The
physical properties of coking coal cause the coal to soften, liquefy and then resolidify into hard
but porous lumps when heated in the absence of air. Coking coal must also have low sulphur
and phosphorous contents. Almost all metallurgical coal is used in coke ovens (World Coal
Association , 2016).
The coking process consists of heating coking coal to around 1000-1100C in the absence of
oxygen to drive off the volatile compounds (pyrolysis). This process results in a hard porous
material - coke. Coke is produced in a coke battery, which is composed of many coke ovens
stacked in rows into which coal is loaded. The coking process takes place over long periods of
time between 12-36 hours in the coke ovens. Once pushed out of the vessel the hot coke is
then quenched with either water or air to cool it before storage or is transferred directly to the
blast furnace for use in iron making (World Coal Association , 2016).

Figure 1 Flowchart of Delayed Coking Process

Photo taken from: Ullmanns Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry (Predel, 2015)

Reference
1.) Mohamed A. Fahim, T. A. (2010). Fundamentals of Petroleum Refining. Khaldeya, Kuwait: Elsevier.
2.) Schobert, HH (1989) The geochemistry of coal: (I) the classification and origin of coal (II). The
components of coal. J Chem Educ 66:242290
3.) Nastny L (2010) Renewable energy and energy efficiency in China: current status and prospects for
2020, vol 182, World watch report. Worldwatch Institute, Washington, DC
4.) Austin, G. T. (1984). Shreve's Chemical Process Industries (5th Edition ed.). Singapore: McGraw-Hill
Book Company.
5.) FRANCESCATO, V., KRAJNC, N., et al. 2009. Wood Fuels Handbook. Legnaro: AIEL - Italian
Agroforestry Energy Association
6.) PREMRL, T., 2010. Biomass Energy, Ed., Twente University Press (NL)
7.) Koponen, K., Sokka, L. & Kernen, J. 2015, Cascading use of woody biomass, VTT Research
Report: VTT-R-03979-15, 20015, p. 25
8.) Fuchsman, C. (2012). Peat: Industrial Chemistry and Technology. Elsevier.
9.) Sardar, S. (2008). Longman Science Physics10. Pearson Education India.
10.)(RBB), R. B. (2011). RWE AG - Lignite Coke. Retrieved from Process Carbons:
http://www.rwe.com/web/cms/en/610700/process-carbons/products/lignite-coke/
11.) Bannerman Company Ltd. (2016). Bark Products (Scotland). Retrieved from Bannerman Company
LTD: http://bannerman-company.com/briquettes/