1.

18 Type of Organic Fuels

1.18.1 Natural Gases

Natural gases are the most commonly used type of gaseous fuel. Presence

of

other

compounds

causes

problems becausedifferent natural gases will give off differing quantities of heat and offgas per unit volume when burned. So, the amount of air needed to burn a given volume of differentnatural gases changes with composition.

 Example: The amount of air required to completely burn one standard cubic meter of Alaskan natural gas (99.6% CH4 and 0.4%N2) at standard state can be get by : (1/22.4)*1000= 44.615 gm-mole A chemical reaction for Alaskan gas can be written as: (a CH4 + b N2 ) + (cO2 + d N2) = e CO2 + f H2O + g N2 By inspection, a=e and f=2a=89.23, the values of a=44.44 and b=0.18, Knowing e and f sets up an oxygen balance: c= (2e+f) = 88.87 moles O2 This amount of oxygen can be divided by 0.21 to get 423.2 gm-mole of air needed to

burn one standard cubic meter of Alaskan natural gas. Converting this to Kg-moles and multiplying by 22.414 m3/Kg mol gives 9.49 m3for the volume of the required air.

1.18.2 Fuel Oils

Carbonaceous liquid fuels are better known as fuel oils and they consist of a large number of hydrocarbon compounds. In addition to C and H, most fuel oils contain a little sulfur, which burns to form SO2.

 Example: fuel oil contains 86.4% C, 11.6% H, and 2.0% S, how many standard cubic feet of offgas will we have to handle when one u.s gallon of this osil with 10% burn excess air? Its specific gravity is 0.910. Since density of water in English units is 62.4 lb/ft3 at room temperate, multiplying this value by 0.910 gives a density for the oil of 56.78 lb/ft3. Using conversion constants: thus, the weight of a gallon= 56.78 (lb/ft3) 6.1337 (ft3/gallon) =7.59 (lb/gallon)

Since the fuel oil cant be separated into its compounds, we will use a materials balance based on its elemental composition. Setting up the equation: (a C + b H + c S ) + (d O2 + e N2 ) = f CO2 + g H2O + h SO2 + j O2 + kN2 multiplying the 7.59 pounds of fuel oil in a gallon which was just calculated by the mass fractions of C, H, and S; and dividing by their atomic mass, yields h=c and a = 0.546, b = 0.874, c = 0.00474; and since f=a, 2g=b, and d = f + g + h + j If j = 0, 0.769 lb-moles of O2 are required, multiplying this by 1.1 produces an actual input of d = 0.846

Multiplying

(d)

by

79/21

results

in

e=k=3.183 lb-moles of N2which gives an actual value of j = 0.077. Adding f, g, h, j, and k determines the total quantity of off - gas produced by burning the fuel oil, 4.248 lb-molls, multiplying this by the 359 standard ft3/lb-mol produce 1525 standard ft3 off-gas per gallon of fuel oil burned.

1.18.3 Solid Fuels

There are a lot of solid carbonaceous fuels as: wood, charcoal, manure, etc.

 The Ash: it is the oxides that dont burn or vaporize when the coal is set on fire such as alumina, hematite, lime, silica, magnesia, etc. Volatile matter: it is the unfixed carbon which is chemically bonded to other elements that tends to form gaseous compounds when the coal is heated in absence of air. Coking: it is the process of driving off the volatile matter in coal by heating in absence of air. Example : Calculate: (a) The amount of coke recovered per ton of coal, (b)The volume of dry off - gas produced.

Answer: Multiplying one ton of coke by 6.7% gives 67 kg of ash, dividing the 67 kg of ash by 0.097 yields 690.7 kg of coke per ton of coal. To get Sulphur in gas = (1000*0.014) (690.7*0.011).

Solving this equation produces 6.40 Kg (S) that has to wind up in the off-gas, dividing this number by 32 0.013 yields a total of 15.36 Kg-moles of dry off-gas produced,

multiplying this number by 22.414 produces 344.25 m3 of off-gas at standard state per ton of charged coal.