Excessairincombustion.docVIP

Excess air in combustion Page  PAGE 11 ? NOTES Dr. Albrecht Kaupp Page  PAGE 1 Excess air in combustion IssueIncorrect amount of air in fuel combustion accounts for the largest losses in combustion systems. Learning ObjectivesUnderstanding the technical jargon behind combustion technologies Knowing the very basics of combustion fundamentals Appreciating the various methods to calculate excess air levels Being able to relate O2 and CO2 measurements to fuel properties Assessing fuel cost reduction potentials Applying quick estimates to calculate energy losses  1. A crash course in combustion principles As shown in lecture 4, all fuels consist mostly of atomic Carbon (C), Hydrogen (H), Oxygen (O), Nitrogen (N), Sulfur (S), minerals (ash) and water (H2O). Fuel combustion means to let the molecular Oxygen (O2) in air react with the combustible components of a fuel. As an example the fuel Carbon (C) reacts with O2 of the air to generate Carbon Dioxide (CO2). If the reaction is incomplete Carbon Monoxide (CO), a deadly gas, is generated. It is worthwhile to point out that all combustion products such as CO2, CO, NOx, CnHm, SO2, SO3, except for the water generated by combustion of H to H2O, are harmful. There is essentially nothing benign in stack gas, except the water vapor. And even the water vapor, because it reacts with SO3 to sulfuric acid (H2SO4) is not really harmless. This environmental and health threat of stack gas is one more reason to reduce energy consumption per unit of product output. 2. The excess air parameter One kg of fuel requires a certain minimum of ambient air to be fully combusted. We call this minimum amount of air the “stochiometric air” or sometimes also “the theoretical air” to combust the fuel. The stochiometric air would completely combust the fuel to Carbon Dioxide (CO2), water (H2O), and Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) if Sulfur is present. If the fuel does not get enough air for combustion it will generate smoke and a potential