' Basics of combustion - I1
equation reveals that 2.25 Ib of wa- generated are used to demonstrate
Last month's column concluded
with a derivation of the high heat
value of methane (CH,). It was
stated in that column that methane
is the primary constituent of com-
mercial or pipeline grade natural
gas. In many areas of the country,
the HHV of natural gas is approxi-
mately 1000 Btu per cu ft, but it can
vary between approximately 830
and 1050 Btu per cu ft-a deviation
of approximately 25 percent. The
approximate heating values of oth-
er fuels used in building systems
are 140,000 Btu per gal for light
(No. 2) fuel oil, 155,000 Btu per gal
for heavy (No. 6) oil, 6700 Btu per
lb for North Dakota lignite, and
14,800 Btu per Ib for West Virginia
semi-bituminous.
The study of methane (a simple
fuel to analyze) provides some rath-
er interesting values that can be ex-
tended to other fuels with a reason-
able degree of accuracy. For exam-
ple, in last month's column, the
theoretical air calculation revealed
that approximately 10 cu ft of air
are needed to burn 1 cu ft of meth-
ane, and 1 cu ft of methane was
found to have a heating value of
approximately 1000 Btu. Thus, it
can be concluded that ideally it re-
quires approximately 10 cu ft of air
to produce 1000 Btu of combustion
heat. With some allowance for ex-
cess air (say 20 percent), this value
becomes 12 cu ft of air to produce
1000 Btu.
The combustion formula for
methane is:
+
CH, 2O2+CO2 2 H 2 0 + q = wc, A t
A simple weight balance on this
O n this page each m o n t h , t h e author
shares his engineering philosophy by ex-
ploring a wide variety of topics, ranging
from fundamentals t o neu: frontiers, as t h e y
relate to building environmental systems.
Mr Coad is vice president of Charles J. R.
McClure & Associates and affiliate pro-
fessor of mechanical engineering at Wash-
ington University, S t . Louis, Mo.
ter vapor are formed for each
pound of methane burned. In most
combustion configurations, this
water is not condensed; thus, the
latent heat of vaporization leaves
the process. At 1060 Btu per lb
(heat of vaporization, hf,, a t 60 F),
this latent heat represents a loss of
available heat equal to 2385 Btu per
lb of methane. Comparing this to
the total amount of heat liberated,
25,807 Btu per lb, reveals that 9.25
percent of the total leaves the pro-
cess in the form of noncondensed
water vapor. When this is deducted
from the HHV, the remainder is
defined as the low heat value, LHV,
d the fuel. In this example, the
LHV is found to be approximately
90 percent of the HHV. This value
will vary, of course, with different
fuels.
The products of combustion-
those gases emanating from the
process-are called the stack gases.
The weight rate of flow of the stack
gases is simply equal to the sum of
the two components entering the
process-the air and the fuel. For
example, the theoretical air calcu-
lation for methane revealed a need
for 17.2 lb of air per lb of methane.
With 20 percent excess, the air flow
rate would be 20.64 lb per lb of
methane. Then, adding this to the 1
Ib of methane gives a total stack
flow rate of 21.64 lb of stack gas per
lb of methane. If this gas leaves the
combustionlheat transfer device at,
say, 400 F and the air and fuel en-
tered at, say, 60 F, the loss of avail-
able heat, determined from the
heat capacity equation, would be:
y = (21.64)(0.24)(340)
q = 1765 Btu per lb methane
As a percent of the total heat lib-
erated, this represents approxi-
mately a 6.8 percent sensible tem-
perature loss.
The foregoing analysis was done
using methane for illustrative pur-
poses because it is the simplest of
all the common fuels. The values
tatingIPipinglAir Conditioning
where the inherent losses occur in
practical combustion devices. The
two major ones are the loss to the
high temperature stack gases and
the latent losses in the water vapor
formed by combustion of the hy-
drogen in the fuel. These were
found, for the methane analyzed, to
total approximately 16 percent.
The other loss from the combustion
cycle is unburned fuel in the stack
gases. This can be in the form of
unburned carbon or carbon monox-
ide gas. With reasonably good com-
bustion devices (burners and stoke-
rs). these unburned fuel losses can
be held to well within a few percent.
Thus, with reasonably well main-
tained state-of-the-art fuel burning
devices, combustion efficiencies of
80 to 85 percent can be obtained.
Considerable efforts are being
made currentlv to i m ~ r o v ethe effil
ciencies by reducing ihe stack tem-
peratures to just above the dew
point temperature (138 F for meth-
ane with no excess air). From the
above example, it can be seen that
such a device could i m ~ r o v ethe
combustion efficiency by approxi-
mately 5 percent. Although there
are some small sized commercial
and residential natural gas boilers
and furnaces that reduc; the tem-
perature of the gases to well below
the dew m i n t and thus recover the
latent heat, such devices have not
yet been perfected in larger sizes.
A few words should be directed to
the problem of air pollution re-
lating to the combustion process.
Most fuels contain, in addition to
carbon and hydrogen, some sulfur.
The sulfur forms sulfur dioxide
(SO,) in the combustion process,
and this is probably the most dam-
aging air pollutant produced by
stationary combustion plants. Vari-
ous nitrogen oxides (NO, ) are also
formed in most combustion Dro-
cesses. Although the nitrogen in the
combustion air is essentially inert,
continued on page 100
February 1982
 continued from page %

a t high temperatures for a finite

length of time it combines with oxy-
gen to form various oxides of nitro-
gen. These pollutants can be min-
imized by improved burner designs
that attempt to decrease both the
peak temperatures and the time
the nitrogen spends at the higher
temperatures. The unburned fuel,
in the form of particulate (such as
carbon dust or soot) or in the form
of carbon monoxide, also con-
tributes serious potential pollu-
tants. The unburned fuel products
are much more prevalent with
heavy oils and coals than with light
oils and natural gas.
As stated at the outset, the com-
bustion of fuels provides the over-
whelming majority of the world's
energy needs and will likely con-
tinue to do so for some time. Thus,
it is imperative that those involved
in energy systems engineering un-
derstand these processes and that
efforts be redoubled for increasing
the effectiveness of converting the
potential energy in fuel to useful
heat, and for reducing the un-
wanted and dangerously polluting
byproducts. fl

tieatingiPip~ngiA~r
Conditioning February 1982