4Combustion
4.1 Overview
The overwhelming majority of both static and mobile power‐generation systems in the world today rely on the burning of fossil fuels, i.e. a chemical reaction between a hydrocarbon compound and air that releases heat.
The energetic gases evolved may be used directly, as in a reciprocating engine or gas turbine, or they may give up their heat in energizing an intermediate working fluid like water/steam. In either case, the gases, which may prove to be environmentally harmful, are discharged to the atmosphere at the end of their usefulness.
This chapter will detail the combustion process from reactant species to product evolution in terms of mass and energy conservation. It will also introduce some of the more practical aspects of combustion and fuel use, for example, excess air, equivalence ratios and calorific values.
Learning Outcomes
- To understand the basic units of combustion chemistry.
- To be able to carry out simple chemical balances on combustion equations.
- To be introduced to basic combustion terminology related to reactant fuel–air mixtures.
- To be able to apply the first law of thermodynamics and conduct energy balances associated with the combustion process.
- To determine the resulting theoretical flame temperatures in a combustion process.
- To be introduced to the generation and removal of sulphur and nitrogen oxide emissions.
4.2 Mass and Matter
At a fundamental level, matter has been classified according to its atomic structure into elements, for example, ...
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