Fuels

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PRINCIPLES OF
CLASSIFICATION OF FUELS
Fuels may broadly be classified in two ways,

According to the physical state in which they

exist in nature solid, liquid and gaseous,
and
According to the mode of their procurement
natural and manufactured.

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3
 LIQUID FUELS
Advantages
(a) They posses higher calorific value per unit mass than solid fuels.
(b) They burn without dust, ash, clinkers, etc.
(c) Their firing is easier and also fire can be extinguished easily by
stopping liquid fuel supply.
(d) They are easy to transport through pipes.
(e) They can be stored indefinitely without any loss.
(f) They are clean in use and economic to handle.
(g) Loss of heat in chimney is very low due to greater cleanliness.
(h) They require less excess air for complete combustion.
(i) They require less furnace space for combustion.

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LIQUID FUELS AND THEIR
CHARACTERISTICS

Disadvantages
(a) The cost of liquid fuel is relatively much higher as compared to solid
fuel.
(b) Costly special storage tanks are required for storing liquid fuels.
(c) There is a greater risk of five hazards, particularly, in case of highly
inflammable and volatile liquid fuels.
(d) They give bad odour.
(e) For efficient burning of liquid fuels, specially constructed burners
and spraying apparatus are required.

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 GASEOUS FUELS
Advantages
(a) They can be conveyed easily through pipelines to the actual place of
need, thereby eliminating manual labour in transportation.
(b) They can be lighted at ease.
(c) They have high heat contents and hence help us in having higher
temperatures.
(d) They can be pre-heated by the heat of hot waste gases, thereby
affecting economy in heat.
(e) Their combustion can readily by controlled for change in demand like
oxidizing or reducing atmosphere, length flame, temperature, etc.
(f) They are clean in use.
(g) They do not require any special burner.
(h) They burn without any shoot, or smoke and ashes.
(i) They are free from impurities found in solid and liquid fuels.

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 GASEOUS FUELS

Disadvantages

(a) Very large storage tanks are needed.

(b) They are highly inflammable, so chances of
fire hazards in their use is high.

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 SOLID FUELS

Advantages

(a) They are easy to transport.

(b) They are convenient to store without any
risk of spontaneous explosion.
(c) Their cost of production is low.
(d) They posses moderate ignition temperature

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SOLID FUELS

Disadvantages

(a) Their ash content is high.

(b) Their large proportion of heat is wasted.
(c) They burn with clinker formation.
(d) Their combustion operation cannot be
controlled easily.
(e) Their cost of handling is high.

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Solid Fuels

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1. Introduction
Solid fuel embraces a wide variety of
combustibles, ranging from wood, peat and
lignite, through refuse and other low calorific
value substances, to coal and other solid
fuels derived from it.
Coal represents by far the largest component
of the worlds fossil fuel reserves.

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 In thermal terms 90% of the known
hydrocarbon fuel deposits are formed by
coal.
The carbon: hydrogen ratio of coal is the
highest of the fossil fuels, hence the calorific
values of coals are principally determined by
the carbon in the fuel.

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 Itis usual to consider coals in terms of their
rank: in general, a high ranking coal will have
a high carbon content.
The other major coal constituent element,
hydrogen, is present in hydrocarbons which
are released as volatile matter when the coal
is heated.

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 Coal is a sedimentary rock of vegetable
origin.
Vast deposits of plant material, formed
approximately 80 million years ago, were
consolidated by pressure, heat and earth
movement.
The rank of a coal is related to its geological
age and, generally, its depth in the earth.

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RANKS OF COAL
The ranking sequence is:

Wood
Peat
Lignite (brown coal)
Bituminous Coal
Anthracite
In general, deposits close to the surface which
can be worked by strip mining produce a more
economical fuel than deep mined coal.
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 Coal was the fuel which fired the Industrial
Revolution, but it is no longer the cheapest
option among the fossil fuels.
The cost of working the deposits and the
investment in technology needed to meet
increasingly stringent emissions standards
have increased the cost of burning coal.

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 Recent developments in gasification
processes have shown that it is possible to
produce gas from coal at a viable thermal
efficiency and to remove the sulfur from the
fuel at the same time.

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2. Coal Classification
As the rank of a coal increases, its carbon
content increases from 75% to about 93% (by
weight), the hydrogen content decreases from
6% to 3%, and the oxygen content decreases
from 20% to 3%.
A useful method for analyzing a coal is the

proximate process.
Proximate analyses of some common fuels

are given in Table 1 (next slide).

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Table 1 Composition of some typical solid fuels (% by mass)

Fuel Carbon Volatile Moisture Ash

matter
Peat 44 65 20 4
Lignite 57 50 15 4
Bituminous 82 25 2 5
Coal
Anthracite 90 4 1 3

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 The moisture in coal is made up of two
components: surface moisture and inherent
moisture.
The former is affected by the way in which
the coal is stored, and is thus variable.

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Analysis of Coal
There are two methods: ultimate analysis and
proximate analysis
Coals are also analyzed in terms of their
elemental constituents, giving the ultimate
analysis which is used in stoichiometric
calculations.
Typical ultimate analyses of two types of solid
fuels are given in Table 2 (next slide).

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Analysis of Coal

Table 2 Ultimate analyses (% by mass) of some coals

Coal Carbon Hydrogen Oxygen Nitrogen Sulfur
Anthracite 94.4 2.9 0.9 1.1 0.7

Bituminous 89.3 5.0 3.4 1.5 0.8

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Analysis of Coal

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Analysis of Coal

the proximate analysis determines only the

fixed carbon, volatile matter, moisture and
ash percentages.

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Analysis of Coal

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3. Coal Properties
There are a number of properties which are
important in identifying the suitability of a coal
for any given application:
Size
Some common size groups, together with
their rather picturesque names, are given in
Table 9.3 (next slide).

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 Table 3 Size distribution for coals
Name Upper limit (mm) Lower limit (mm)
Large Cobbles >150 75
Cobbles 100-150 50-100
Trebles 63-100 38-63
Doubles 38-63 25-38
Singles 25-38 13-18

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 Calorific value
The ranking of a coal is not necessarily
related to its calorific value.
Coal fuels generally have a range of values
from 21 to 33 MJ/kg (gross).
The design rating of a coal-fired burner is
usually based on an estimated calorific value
of 26 MJ/kg (6,200 kcal/kg).

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 Ash Fusion Temperature
The melting point of the ash left after combustion of
the coal is of particular importance in terms of the
combustion and ash disposal equipment.
If the ash fuses it produces a glassy, porous
substance known as clinker (slag).
The combustion equipment will be designed to
handle either clinker or unfused ash, and use of the
wrong type of coal can have dire consequences.

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 Sulfur Content
Many deep-mined coals have a fairly high sulfur
content, typically around 1.5% by weight.
The same consideration apply to coal-fired
installations as to oil-fired combustion equipment
namely that condensation inside the plant must be
avoided and that the design of the flue must ensure
that ground concentration of sulfur oxides are
controlled within acceptable limits.

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COAL CONVERSION
PROCESSES
Combustion

Carbonization

Gasification

Liquefaction

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Coal Combustion
Coal is burned with excess oxygen to
produce energy
C + O2 CO2
H + 1/2O2 H 2O
S + O2 SO2 or SO3
2N + 1.5 O2 NO + NO2

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Coal Combustion

Ifthe system is oxygen deficient, then

incomplete combustion occurs
C + 0.5 O2 CO

This reaction is undesirable for two reasons

1. Less heat is liberated when carbon is
burned to form carbon monoxide than when
carbon is converted to carbon dioxide

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Coal Combustion

2. carbon monoxide is a deadly poison. It forms

very strong chemical bonds with the iron atoms
in the hemoglobin in blood. Ordinarily, these iron atoms
form bonds to oxygen molecules, and transport oxygen to
all the cells of the body. As carbon monoxide bonds to the
iron, its presence prevents the iron from carrying an
oxygen molecule through the bloodstream. If a large
number of hemoglobin molecules are saturated with
carbon monoxide, the inability to transport oxygen
throughout the body can lead to death.

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Coal Combustion
An additional problem associated with the combustion of
coal in small units is the production of smoke and soot.
In the complete absence of oxygen, carbon and carbon
compounds will not burn. If the fire is starved of oxygen,
particles of carbon from the coal may not burn, but rather
be liberated from the coal as soot particles.
In addition, smoke is formed when the top-most layers of
coal on the grate become hot enough to evolve volatiles
(as in the volatile matter test in the proximate analysis of
coal). These volatiles may undergo partial combustion or
carbonization to form tars and soot. This coal smoke
reduced the amount of sunlight reaching the ground by
40%.
In spite of these problems, coal is one of the cheapest
and most reliable fuels for use in electric power plants.
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Coal Carbonization (Coking)
The second largest use of coal is the
manufacture of coke for the metallurgical
industry.
The coal is subjected to destructive
distillation in heated retort in the absence of
air. In carbonization, the main product is
coke, but tar, light oil, ammonia liquor and
coke oven gases are also produced.

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Coal Carbonization (Coking)

When the coal is charge into the coke oven,

the coal particles adjacent to the heated walls
melt and fuse, lose much of their volatile
materials, and finally solidify into porous semi
coke structure. This structure is further
devolatilized to form a hard cellular structure
coke.

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 Coal Gasification
Gasification is a process in which combustible
materials are partially oxidized or partially
combusted. The product of gasification is a
combustible synthesis gas, or syngas.
Coal is burned with lean oxygen environment to
produce CO & H2
C + O2 CO
H H2
S + O2 H2S or COS
N + O2 HCN , NH3 or N2
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. Diagram showing the products of reaction as a function of oxygen-to
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40
4. Coal Combustion
Coal combustion is a two-phase process and
the objective of the burner is, as always, to
achieve complete combustion of the fuel with
maximum energy efficiency.
Three common ways of burning solid fuels
are currently in use and are briefly reviewed
below.

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 Pulverized Fuel
The coal is ground to a very fine size (about
0.08mm or more than 70% pass through #200
mesh) when it can be made to behave rather like a
liquid if air is blown upwards through the powder.
The preparation and handling equipment is very
expensive and pulverized fuel installations are
generally only economically viable in very large
scale applications, such as thermal power stations.

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 The fuel is injected in the form of a conical
spray, inside a swirling conical primary air
supply in a fashion analogous to that for an
oil burner.
Fluidized Bed Combustors (FBC)
The basic principle of operation is that the
coal is mixed with an inert material (e.g.
sand) and the bed is fluidized by an
upwards flow of air (Fig. 9.1, next slide).
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 Although the fluidization requires more fan power
than the conventional grate combustions (Figs. 9.3
& 9.4), there are a number of advantages in FBC:
(1) The bed temperature can be kept cooler than
in the case of grate combustion-fluidized bed
temperatures are generally within the range
750-950.
This means that ash fushion does not occur and
the low temperatures produce less NOX.

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 (2) High rates of heat transfer can be attained
between the bed and heat exchanger
tubes immersed in it.
(3) A wide range of fuel types can be burned
efficiently.
(4) additives (such as limestone) can be
used which react with oxides of sulfur
retaining the sulfur in the bed with
consequent reduction in SOX emission.
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 Grate Combustion
The simplest, and most common, way of burning
coal is by igniting a bed of the fuel on a porous grate
which allows air to rise through the bed, either by
buoyancy in smaller equipment or with fan
assistance in the larger, automatic stokers.
The combustion of a coal on a grate commences
with heat transfer to the raw coal from the adjacent
incandescent fuel.
The first effect that this has is to drive off the volatile
matter from the coal.
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 The volatiles will then rise through the bed,
partly reacting with the hot carbonaceous
material above it, to burn as a yellow flame
above the bed.
As the combustion process proceeds, the
volatile matter decreases until there is only
the carbonaceous residue left, which burns
with the intense emission of radiation.

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 As the air enters the fuel bed from below, the
initial reaction is the combustion of the
carbon to carbon dioxide.
In the hot upper region of the gas this is
reduced to carbon monoxide:
CO2 + C 2CO
Which burns in the secondary air above the
bed.

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 The effect of this is to decrease the
concentration of oxygen from 21% at entry, to
zero at about 100 mm above the grate.
At this point, there is a peak in the carbon
dioxide concentration which falls away as the
reduction to carbon monoxide proceeds (Fig.
9.2, next slide).

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