Fuel and Combustion – INDIANS

Fuels are sources of heat energy released through combustion.

What are fuels

 Source of heat energy commonly stored at chemical energy, and release through combustion.
 Substances usually containing large amount of carbon, produces large amount of heat during
combustion.
 Energy in form of heat is used for industrial and domestic purposes.

Classification of fuels

Fuels are classified into broad categories. The classification is based on either occurrence or state.

Occurrence

 Natural or primary fuels

 Artificial or secondary fuels

State of Aggregation

 Solid fuels
 Liquid Fuels
 Gaseous Fuels

Properties of Fuels
Characteristic of a good fuels

COAL

Coal is a fossil fuel which occurs in layers in the earth’s crust. It is formed by the partial decay of plant
materials accumulated millions of years ago and further altered by action of heat and pressure. The
process of conversion of wood into coal can be represented as

Wood → Peat → Lignite → Bituminous Coal → Anthracite

1. Peat - is a brown-fibrous jelly like mass.

2. Lignite - these are soft, brown colored, lowest rank coals

3. Bituminous coals - These are pitch black to dark grey coal

4. Anthracite - It is a class of highest rank coal

Characteristic of Fuel
Ranking Of Coal – %Fixed Carbon

 Proximate Analysis – The percentage of carbon is determined indirectly

 Ultimate Analysis

Estimating The Calorific Value

Calorific Value
HCV

LCV

Basic Combustion Reaction

Amount of Oxygen in Air

Bomb Calorimeter