Combustion

• combustion process is at the heart of fossil-fueled power plant

operation
• Through the combustion process, modern power plants burn fuel to
release the energy that generates steam—energy that ultimately is
transformed into electricity.
• Yet, while the combustion process is one of a power plant's most
fundamental processes, it is also one of the most complex.
• Combustion, or the conversion of fuel to useable energy, must be
carefully controlled and managed.
• Only the heat released that is successfully captured by the steam is
useful for generating power.
• Hence, the ability of the steam generator to successfully transfer
energy from the fuel to steam is driven by the combustion process,
or more precisely, the characteristics of the combustion process.

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Combustion
• Combustion of fuels must be considered both from theoretical
• and practical perspectives.
• From the theoretical perspective, combustion can be defined as the
rapid chemical reaction of oxygen with the combustible elements of
a fuel.
• From a practical standpoint, the engineer concerned with boiler
design and performance might define combustion as the chemical
union of the fuel combustibles and the oxygen of the air, controlled
at a rate that produces useful heat energy.

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Remember
• For complete combustion within a furnace, four basic criteria must
be satisfied:
• 1. Adequate quantity of air (oxygen) supplied to the fuel,
• 2. Oxygen and fuel thoroughly mixed,
• 3. Fuel-air mixture maintained at or above the ignition temperature,
• and
• 4. Furnace volume large enough to give the mixture time for
complete combustion

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….
• In an ideal situation, the combustion process would occur with the
appropriate proportions of oxygen and a combustible, based on
underlying chemical principles (the stoichiometric quantities).
• The efficiency of the mixing process and the quantity of excess air
supplied determine whether the exhaust gases contain the products
of both complete and incomplete combustion.
• If combustion is incomplete, in addition to loss of the heat available
in the unburned fuel, undesirable atmospheric pollutants such as
carbon monoxide are often produced.
• Excessive turbulence and availability of combustion air can also
increase production of nitrogen oxide, another atmospheric
pollutant.

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FUELS AND COMBUSTION
Fuel: Any material that can be burned to release thermal energy.
Most familiar fuels consist primarily of hydrogen and carbon.
They are called hydrocarbon fuels and are denoted by the general formula
CnHm.
Hydrocarbon fuels exist in all phases, some examples being coal, gasoline
(usually treated as octane C8H18), and natural gas.

Most liquid hydrocarbon fuels

are obtained from crude oil by
distillation. 5
The oxidizer most often used in combustion processes is air. Why?
The oxidizer most often used in combustion processes is air, for obvious
reasons—it is free and readily available.
On a mole or a volume basis, dry air is composed of 20.9% O2, 78.1% N2,
0.9% Ar, and small amounts of CO2, He, Ne, H2.
In the analysis of combustion processes, dry air is approximated as 21% O2
and 79% N2 by mole numbers.

Combustion is a chemical reaction during Each kmol of O2 in air

which a fuel is oxidized and a large is accompanied by 3.76
quantity of energy is released. kmol of N2.
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During combustion, nitrogen behaves as an inert gas and does not react with other
elements, other than forming a very small amount of nitric oxides. However, even then
the presence of nitrogen greatly affects the outcome of a combustion process since
nitrogen usually enters a combustion chamber in large quantities at low temperatures
and exits at considerably higher temperatures, absorbing a large proportion of the
chemical energy released during combustion.

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The fuel must be brought above its ignition
temperature to start the combustion. The
minimum ignition temperatures in
atmospheric air are approximately 260°C for
gasoline, 400°C for carbon, 580°C for
hydrogen, 610°C for carbon monoxide, and
630°C for methane.
Proportions of the fuel and air must be in the
proper range for combustion to begin.

The mass (and number of atoms)

of each element is conserved
during a chemical reaction.

The total number of

moles is not
conserved during a
chemical reaction.
In a steady-flow combustion process, the components that
enter the reaction chamber are called reactants and the
components that exit are called products.
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A frequently used quantity in the analysis of
combustion processes to quantify the
amounts of fuel and air is the air–fuel ratio
m = nM
AF.
Air-fuel ratio (AF) is usually expressed m mass
on a mass basis and is defined as the ratio n number of moles
of the mass of air to the mass of fuel for a M molar mass
combustion process

Fuel–air ratio (FA): The reciprocal of air–fuel ratio.

The air–fuel ratio (AF) represents the amount of air used

per unit mass of fuel during a combustion process.
Note: The mass m of a substance is related to the number of moles n through
the relation m = nM, where M is the molar mass.
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 Combustion of simple hydrocarbon fuels

The combustion of methane with oxygen is defined by

Usually combustion takes place between a fuel and air (a mixture of oxygen and nitrogen).
Combustion of methane with air is given by

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 THEORETICAL AND ACTUAL COMBUSTION
PROCESSES
Complete combustion: If all the carbon in the fuel burns to CO2, all the
hydrogen burns to H2O, and all the sulfur (if any) burns to SO2.
Incomplete combustion: If the combustion products contain any unburned
fuel or components such as C, H2, CO, or OH.
Reasons for incomplete combustion: 1 Insufficient oxygen, 2 insufficient
mixing in the combustion chamber during the limited time that the fuel and the
oxygen are in contact, and 3 dissociation (at high temperatures).
Oxygen has a much greater tendency to
combine with hydrogen than it does with
carbon. Therefore, the hydrogen in the
fuel normally burns to completion,
forming H2O, even when there is less
oxygen than needed for complete
A combustion process is complete if all combustion. Some of the carbon,
the combustible components of the fuel however, ends up as CO or just as plain
are burned to completion. C particles (soot) in the products.

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Stoichiometric or theoretical air: The minimum amount of air needed for the
complete combustion of a fuel. Also referred to as the chemically correct amount of air,
or 100% theoretical air.
Stoichiometric or theoretical combustion: The ideal combustion process during
which a fuel is burned completely with theoretical air. Thus, when a fuel is completely
burned with theoretical air, no uncombined oxygen is present in the product gases.
Excess air: In actual combustion processes, it is common practice to use more air
than the stoichiometric amount to increase the chances of complete combustion or to
control the temperature of the combustion chamber. The amount of air in excess of the
stoichiometric amount. Usually expressed in terms of the stoichiometric air as percent
excess air or percent theoretical air.
Deficiency of air: Amounts of air less than the stoichiometric amount. Often
expressed as percent deficiency of air.
Equivalence ratio: The ratio of the actual fuel–air ratio to the stoichiometric fuel–air
ratio. The reactants are said to form a lean mixture when the equivalence ratio is less
than unity. When the ratio is greater than unity, the reactants are said to form a rich
mixture.
50% excess air = 150% theoretical air
200% excess air = 300% theoretical air.
90% theoretical air = 10% deficiency of air

The complete combustion process with no free oxygen

in the products is called theoretical combustion. 14
ADIABATIC FLAME TEMPERATURE
In the absence of any work interactions (W=0) and any changes in kinetic or potential
energies, the chemical energy released during a combustion process either is lost as
heat to the surroundings or is used internally to raise the temperature of the
combustion products. The smaller the heat loss, the greater the energy carried out
with the combustion products and thus the greater the temperature of the products..
In the limiting case of no heat loss to the surroundings (Q = 0), the temperature of the
products reaches a maximum, which is called the adiabatic flame or adiabatic
combustion temperature.
since

The temperature of a
combustion chamber
becomes maximum when
combustion is complete and
no heat is lost to the
surroundings (Q = 0).

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Note that the adiabatic flame temperature of a fuel is not unique. The
adiabatic flame temperature of a fuel depends on
(1) the state of the reactants
(2) the degree of completion of the reaction
(3) the amount of air used
For a specified fuel at a specified state burned with air at a
specified state, the adiabatic flame temperature attains its
maximum value when complete combustion occurs with the
theoretical amount of air.

The maximum temperature encountered in a

combustion chamber is lower than the theoretical
adiabatic flame temperature. 16
….
• When equilibrium between the total heat energies of the reactants
and the total heat energies of the products (including the actual heat
and light emitted) is reached, combustion stops.
• Flames have a definable composition and a complex structure; they
are said to be multiform and are capable of existing at quite low
temperatures, as well as at extremely high temperatures.
• The emission of light in the flame results from the presence of
excited particles and, usually, of charged atoms and molecules and
of electrons.

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