"Fuels"

It is a source of heat energy, which may be burnt in atmospheric air in such a manner that heat evolved is capable of being economically used for domestic and industrial purposes for heating and generation of power. Combustion converts chemical energy of fuel into useful work by engine.

Classification of fuels:
SOLID FUELS LIQUID FUELS i. Primary fuels i. Primary fuels Wood, peat, lignite, Crude oil or petroleum bituminous coal, ii. Secondary fuels Anthracite, oil shales, tar Gasoline/motor spirit, sands, bitumen diesel oil, kerosene, fuel oil, coal tar, ii. Secondary fuels Semi coke, coke alcohols, synthetic charcoal, briquettes spirit. petroleum coke, pulverized coal, solid rocket fuels (Thiokol, hydrazine nitrocellulose). GASEOUS FUELS i. Primary fuels Natural gas ii. Secondary fuels Coal gas, water gas, producer gas, oil gas, acetylene gas, liquefied petroleum gas.

COMBUSTION :
It is an exothermic oxidation reaction, in which a fuel usually oxidized into water and CO2 gases with release of heat energy. Fuel + Air + Ea CO2 + H2O

-H

For a single pure hydrocarbon, combustion graph can be plotted against enthalpy as

Ea = Activation energy = Difference of energy between ground and excited state of reactant = Amount of energy required to bring up one mole of reactant into excited state. This energy is required to make all C__C bonds in fragile state therefore Ea depends upon nature of C__C bond. If Ea is higher then it difficult to combust and if lower then it is easy to combust. = Difference of energy between reactant and product = Amount of heat energy released by complete combustion of one mole of hydrocarbon. It depends upon number of carbons per hydrocarbon molecule. But fuels are not pure compounds. LPG = C3 to C4, Petrol = C5 to C10, Diesel = C12 to C18 Hcombustion So these terminologies are replaced as Pure Hydrocarbon Hcombustion , Ea (per mole) Fuel (Mixture of Hydrocarbons) Calorific Value , Combustibility (per unit mass)

Calorific value = Amount of heat energy produced by complete combustion of a unit mass of fuel. Units are Cal/g, Kcal/Kg. It depends upon number of carbon atoms present in fuel molecules Combustibility = Ability to combust or ease to combust or tendency to combust. It inversely depends upon activation energy of all fuel molecules. As during combustion all C__C bonds breakup so combustibility depends upon nature of C__C bond.

Easy to combust
Saturation Straight Chain Open Chain Aliphatic

Difficult to combust
Unsaturation Branched Chain Cyclic Aromatic

So analog compound with different structures have different combustibility Combustibility Saturation, Straight Chain, Open Chain, Unsaturation, Branched Chain, Cyclic, Aliphatic Aromatic

Decreasing combustibility tendency of hydrocarbon fuel is as follow, Straight Chain > Branched Chain > Cycloalkanes > Alkenes > Alkynes > Aromatics

Parameters of fuel quality

1- Flash point Lowest temperature at which a fuel gives off enough vapours which are sufficient to form an ignitable mixture with air in such a way that application of test flame will produce spark or flash within the test flame chamber. It is inverse measurement of volatility of fuel. Low flash point fuel would easily atomized by carburetor and vice versa.

2- Adiabatic Flame Temperature The highest possible temperature which can be achieved by the complete combustion of fuel under the conditions that the burning occurs in an adiabatic vessel and no dissociation occur. There are two types of adiabatic flame temperature depending on how the process is completed, constant volume and constant pressure. The constant volume adiabatic flame temperature is the temperature that results from a complete combustion process that occurs without any work, heat transfer or changes in kinetic or potential energy. The constant pressure adiabatic flame temperature is the temperature that results from a complete combustion process that occurs without any heat transfer or changes in potential energy. Its temperature is lower than the constant volume process because some of the energy is utilized to change the volume of the system (i.e., generate work). 3- Calorific Value: Amount of heat evolved by complete combustion of a unit mass of fuel. In CGS system cal/g In SI system Kcal/Kg

4- Octane number It indicates antiknock properties of fuel. Standard reference fuels for octane number below 100 are iso-octane and n-heptane with assigned values 100 and 0 respectively. So octane number defined as, Volume percentage of iso-octane in a blend with n-heptane which produce equal knock intensity as test fuel under standard conditions of single-cylinder engine. So a fuel of 87 octane number means its knock intensity matched with knock intensity of a blend of 87 volume percent of iso-octane and 13 volume percent of n-heptane. Octane number higher than 100 is called Performance number. Standard reference fuel for performance number is blend of tetraethyl lead (TEL) with iso-octane. Maximum performance number is 125 e.g Aviation gasoline.

5- Cetane number Cetane number show how rapidly combustion begins after injection of fuel into combustion chamber i.e it is inversely related to ignition delay of a fuel in engine. Reference fuels are Hexadecane (C16H34 = cetane) having low ignition delay time and 2,2,4,4,6,8,8-heptamethyl nonane (C16H34) have long ignition delay time, they are assigned value 100 and 0 respectively on cetane scale. Cetane number defined as, Percentage volume of hexadecane in a blend with heptamethyl nonane which have equal ignition time delay as test fuel under standard condition of single cylinder engine. Structural features like long chain, saturated, un-branched and chain increase cetane number while branching & un-saturation decrease cetane number. High cetane number fuel will facilitate easy starting of engine in cold weather, faster warm up increase engine efficiency & power output, and reduce exhaust smoke, odor & combustion noise.

Parameters of lubricants quality

1. Dropping Point of grease: Dropping point is the temperature at which grease passes from a semisolid to a liquid state so that it becomes substantially fluid under the test condition. 2. Viscosity Index (VI) In many applications a lubricating oil will have to function in a machinery over a considerable wide range of operating temperature while oils generally have low viscosity at high temperature and high viscosity at low temperature. Although change in viscosity could not be avoided but good oil should have minimum variation in viscosity along with temperature. Viscosity index show effect of change of temperature on the viscosity of an oil. VI is the numerical inverse relationship expression of average slope of the viscosity temperature curve of lubricating oil b/w 40 0C to 100 0C temperature. In this concept, an oil whose viscosity change rapidly with change in temperature should have high slope value & low VI while an oil with a minimum change in viscosity with change in temperature has a low slope value & high VI.

Pennsylvanian oil show small change in viscosity with temperature so choose as high viscosity index standard with VI value 100 while Gulf oil show large change in viscosity with temperature so choose as low viscosity index standard with VI value zero. VI of oil under examination is calculated by comparing its viscosity with these two standard oils b/w 40 0C to 100 0C temperatures by following formula. VI = VL - VS VL - VH x 100 VL = Viscosity of low standard oil at 40 0C VS = Viscosity of sample oil at 40 0C VH = Viscosity of high standard oil at 40 0C