Combust
Combust
Combust
generic hydrocarbon fuels - (CxHy), in which the oxydizer is the oxygen contained
in atmospheric air. Note that we will not cover the combustion of solid fuels or
the complex blends and mixtures of the hydrocarbons which make up gasolene,
kerosene, or diesel fuels.
Atmospheric Air contains approximately 21% oxygen (O2) by volume. The other 79% of
"other gases" is mostly nitrogen (N2), so we will assume air to be composed of 21%
oxygen and 79% nitrogen by volume. Thus each mole of oxygen needed to oxidize the
hydrocarbon is accompanied by 79/21 = 3.76 moles of nitrogen. Using this
combination the molecular mass of air becomes 29 [kg/kmol]. Note that it is assumed
that the nitrogen will not normally undergo any chemical reaction.
The Combustion Process - The basic combustion process can be described by the fuel
(the hydrocarbon) plus oxydizer (air or oxygen) called the Reactants, which undergo
a chemical process while releasing heat to form the Products of combustion such
that mass is conserved. In the simplest combustion process, known as Stoichiometric
Combustion, all the carbon in the fuel forms carbon dioxide (CO2) and all the
hydrogen forms water (H2O) in the products, thus we can write the chemical reaction
as follows:
Theoretical Air and Air-Fuel Ratio -The minimum amount of air which will allow the
complete combustion of the fuel is called the Theoretical Air (also referred to as
Stoichiometric Air). In this case the products do not contain any oxygen. If we
supply less than theoretical air then the products could include carbon monoxide
(CO), thus it is normal practice to supply more than theoretical air to prevent
this occurrence. This Excess Air will result in oxygen appearing in the products.
The standard measure of the amount of air used in a combustion process is the Air-
Fuel Ratio (AF), defined as follows:
Thus considering only the reactants of the methane combustion with theoretical air
presented above, we obtain:
Solved Problem 11.1 - In this problem we wish to develop the combustion equation
and determine the air-fuel ratio for the complete combustion of n-Butane (C4H10)
with a) theoretical air, and b) 50% excess air.
Furthermore, since the sum of the component volumes Vi must equal the total volume
V, we have:
Using a similar approach we determine the partial pressure of a component using
Dalton's Law of Partial Pressures:
Solved Problem 11.2 - In this problem Propane (C3H8) is burned with 61% excess air,
which enters a combustion chamber at 25�C. Assuming complete combustion and a total
pressure of 1 atm (101.32 kPa), determine a) the air-fuel ratio [kg-air/kg-fuel],
b) the percentage of carbon dioxide by volume in the products, and c) the dew point
temperature of the products.
Solved Problem 11.3 - In this problem Ethane (C2H6) is burned with atmospheric air,
and the volumetric analysis of the dry products of combustion yields the following:
10% CO2, 1% CO, 3% O2, and 86% N2. Develop the combustion equation, and determine
a) the percentage of excess air, b) the air-fuel ratio, and c) the dew point of the
combustion products.