THERMOFLUIDS, Level5

Lecture 6 – Combustion

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 Combustion

Fuel

Products
Reactants

Products of
COMBUSTION combustion

Oxidiser

(Heat Released)

Combustion:
• Chemical composition changes during process (chemical reactions – combustion)
• Energy is released
• Consider internal energy (sensible & latent energy) plus chemical energy
• Important in IC engines, gas turbines, power-station furnaces

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 Fuels
Solid fuels – coal, wood,
organic material

Liquid fuels – mostly

hydrocarbon fuels
obtained from distillation
of crude oil, but
increasingly bio-fuels (1st
and 2nd generation) -(a)

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 Air (oxidiser)
Composition of air for combustion calculations can be approximated to:

N2 O2
Volumetric analysis 79% 21%
Gravimetric analysis 76.8% 23.2%

Therefore in air, 21 moles of O2 for 79 moles of N2

→1 kmol O2 + 3.76 kmol of N2 = 4.76 kmol of air

Remember:
• One mol of any substance contains 6.023x1023 molecules (Avogadro’s number,
amount of atoms as there are in 12g of C-12)
• If n is the moles of a substance, then molar mass, M=m/n or:

mass(kg)
Molar _ mass(kg / kmol) 
no _ of _ mol(kmol)
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 Combustion equation
NOTE:
Consider oxidation (combustion reaction) between two • Atomic species and mass
molecules of carbon monoxide and one molecule of are conserved - for HC fuel,
oxygen: same number of atoms of C,
H, O and N on reactant side
2CO  O2  2CO2 as product side

(conservat ion of atomic no and mass) • No of mols may be different,

Can also be written as (so reaction can be written in terms of kmol of fuel) : as reactants and products
differ
1
CO  O2  CO2
2

When carbon monoxide is burnt with air, the reaction can be written as (Nitrogen
does not take part in the reaction, but is important since it affects volumetric
composition of products and combustion temperature): -(b)

1 79  1 79
CO   O2  N 2   CO2  N2
2 21  2 21
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 Air-Fuel Ratio(AFR) and Equivalence ratio
Stoichiometric combustion:
• Complete combustion - products of combustion are CO2 and H2
(Incomplete combustion – other products such as CO and other HC’s will appear)
• Stoichiometric or theoretical combustion –
rxn goes to completion & no excess O2 in products

mair (n) air ( M ) air

Air _ Fuel _ Ratio ( AFR )   , where n  no of mols, M  molar mass
m fuel (n) fuel ( M ) fuel
AFR actual
Lambda( ) 
AFR stoichiometric
( )  1  stoichimet ric _ mixture
( )1  fuel _ rich _ mixture
( )1  fuel _ lean _ mixture

AFRstoichimetric 1
Equivalenc e _ Ratio ( )  
AFRactual 
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 Enthalpy of combustion
Molecules contain:
(1) Sensible & Latent energy
(2) Chemical energy (associated with
molecular structure / bonding)
(3) Nuclear energy (atomic structure – not
considered here)

During processes which involve

combustion, we must now consider
energy associated with 2 & 1.

Enthalpy of combustion, hc
• Measure of isothermal enthalpy change for combustion rxn
• Generally quoted on per mol basis
• hc’s listed at reference state 25degC, 1atm

Enthalpy of formation, hf
• Fundamental property to represent chemical energy of an element or
molecule at reference state 25degC, 1atm
• Allows engineers to deal with incomplete combustion, non-std fuels
• Stable elements such as O2, N2, H2, C are assigned value of zero at
reference state 7
 Heating value (LHV and HHV)
Heating value (or calorific value) of fuel = enthalpy of combustion of fuel
(amount of energy released when fuel is burned completely and products are
returned to state (P & T) of reactants).

HHV  LHV  nh fg H O ( kJ/kg of fuel )

2

where :

HHV  higher heating value

LHV - lower heating value

n  no of mols of H2O in products, hfg is enthalpy of

vapourisation of water at 25degC, 1atm

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 Combustion – 1st law analysis
For const pressure, steady-flow (OPEN SYSTEMS)

Q  W  H P  H R (kJ )
where H P  enthalpy of products

H R  enthalpy of reactants

Then H and H can be expressedin terms of enthalpies and mol no' s :

R P

H P   nP (h of  h  h o ) P
H R   nR (h of  h  h o ) R
o
where superscript representsproperties at std states (25degC,1atm).Then

(if no work due to steady - flow becomesHeat Released) :

Q   nP (h of  h  h o ) P   nR (h of  h  h o ) R

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 Combustion – 1st law analysis
For const volume, non-flow (CLOSED SYSTEMS)

Q  W  U P  U R (kJ )
where U P  internal energyof products

U R  internal energyof reactants

Rememberh  u  Pv  u  h - Pv, then U and U can be expressedas :

R P

U P   nP (h of  h  h o  Pv ) P
U R   nR (h of  h  h o  Pv ) R
o
where superscript representsproperties at std states (25degC,1atm).Then

(conservation of energyinc boundary work) :

Q  W   nP (h of  h  h o  Pv ) P   nR (h of  h  h o  Pv ) R

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 Combustion – Adiabatic flame temperature
If W=0, and heat loss to the surroundings tends to zero (Q=0), then the products will reach a maximum
temperature – the adiabatic flame temperature. For steady-flow:

HP  HR
hence :

 P f
n ( h o
 h  h o
) P   R f
n ( h o
 h  h o
)R

Enthalpy of reactants can be easily determined, but enthalpy of products of combustion requires iteration since
the temperature of the products is not know prior to the calculation.

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Appendix A - Periodic table

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 References

• Thermodynamics: An engineering approach,

Cengel & Boles (McGraw-Hill publishing)
• Internal combustion engines, 2nd Ed, Richard
Stone (Macmillan press)
• www.hmpublishing.com

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