Dr. Artemio J.

Benítez Fundora
 

Combustion Calculations for Solid and Liquid Fuels

Solid and Liquid Fuels Elementary Composition also known as Ultimate Analysis of
Composition, or Composition of Fuel as Received is expressed in gravimetric fractions
of the chemical elements present on them. This elementary composition is normally
associated mainly with Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, Nitrogen, Sulphur, Ashes and Water
contents in percent (CHONSAW).

From the Ultimate Analysis of a Fuel, is possible to estimate the theoretical quantity of
Oxygen to make the complete combustion of it, liberating all the potential energy of the
reaction chemical reaction into heat. To accomplish this purpose the only thing that is
needed to know, are the elementary reactions of combustion of the elements that
composes the fuel. Not all of them reacts with oxygen, only Carbon, Hydrogen and
Sulphur; the rest of the elements except the Oxygen present in the fuel, are considered as
ballast because they only absorbs part of the heat produced for the combustion of the
other elements during the burning of the fuel. So, Nitrogen, Ashes and Water are ballast or
parasite elements that do not produce any heat of reaction.

Some examples of Ultimate Composition for Liquid and Solid Fuels are referred in the
following table:

Table I: Elementary Composition of some liquid and solid fuels

FUEL ULTIMATE ANALYSIS (Mass Fraction)  kg/kg of Fuel 

LIQUID FUELS Carbon Hydrogen Sulfur  Nitrogen Oxygen  Ash  Moisture

Gasoline  0.862 0.128 0.01 0 0 0 0

Diesel  0.838 0.121 0.035 0 0 0.006 0
Light Fuel Oil (Bunker A)  0.834 0.117 0.04 0 0 0.009 0
Heavy Fuel Oil (Bunker B)  0.829 0.114 0.045 0 0 0.012 0
Residual Fuel Oil (Bunker C)  0.883 0.095 0.012 0 0 0.01 0
SOLID FUELS   
Coal No. 1  0.847 0.026 0.011 0.016 0.01 0.04 0.05
Coal No. 2  0.785 0.047 0.019 0.042 0.017 0.04 0.05
Coal No. 3  0.63 0.039 0.018 0.09 0.013 0.16 0.05
Coal No. 4  0.59 0.037 0.017 0.084 0.012 0.18 0.08
Wood  0.335 0.06 0 0.3 0 0.3 0.005
Rice Hull  0.3781 0.0468 0 0.335 0.0028 0 0.2368

The total sum of the elements in the composition must be 1 if it is expressed in mass
fractions or 100 if it is expressed in percentage.

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 Dr. Artemio J. Benítez Fundora
 

Perfect Combustion Reactions or Stoichiometric Reactions:

→
These are molar stoichiometric reactions of combustion for Carbon, Hydrogen and
Sulphur; the combustible elements in the fuel composition, and the first one states that 1
mole of Carbon requires 1 mole of Oxygen to produce 1 mole of Carbon Dioxide; and so
on.

The molar relationship of the need of Oxygen to complete each reaction is as follows:

 1 mole of molecular Oxygen is required to burn 1 mole of Carbon (1 mole

O2/mole of C)
 ½ mole of molecular Oxygen is required to burn 1 mole of molecular Hydrogen (½
mole O2/mole of H2)
 1 mole of molecular Oxygen is required to burn 1 mole of Sulphur (1 mole
O2/mole of S)

The molar relationship of the reaction products obtained at the end of each reaction is as
follows:

 1 mole of Carbon Dioxide is produced when 1 mole of Carbon is burnt (1 mole

CO2/mole of C)
 1 mole of Water is produced when 1 mole of molecular Hydrogen is burnt (1 mole
H2O/mole of H2)
 1 mole of Sulphur Dioxide is produced when 1 mole of Sulphur is burnt (1 mole
SO2/mole of S)

Due to the fact that the elementary compositions of solid and liquid fuels are normally
expressed in gravimetric form, we need to convert these molar proportions to mass
relationships, using the molecular weights of each component in the above equations.

By the Periodic Table we can know that:

 1 mole of atomic Carbon weights 12,0107 grams

 1 mole of molecular Oxygen weights 31,9988 grams
 1 mole of molecular Hydrogen weights 2,01588 grams
 1 mole of atomic Sulphur weights 32,065 grams

Using the Mass Conservation Law, we can re-write the above stoichiometric equation in
mass form as:

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 Dr. Artemio J. Benítez Fundora
 

12,0107 31,9988 → 44,0095

2,01588 ∙ 31,9988 → 18,01528

32,065 31,9988 → 64,0638

The mass relationship of the need of Oxygen to complete each reaction is as follows:

 2,6641911 gram of molecular Oxygen is required to burn 1 gram of Carbon

(2,6641911 grams O2/gram of C)
 7.93668274 grams of molecular Oxygen is required to burn 1 gram of molecular
Hydrogen (7,93668274 grams O2/gram of H2)
 0.99793544 grams of molecular Oxygen is required to burn 1 gram of Sulphur
(0,99793544 grams O2/gram of S)

The molar relationship of the reaction products obtained at the end of each reaction is as
follows:

 3,6641911 gram of Carbon Dioxide is produced when 1 gram of Carbon is burnt

(3,6641911 grams CO2/gram of C)
 8,93668274 grams of Water is produced when 1 mole of molecular Hydrogen is
burnt (8,93668274 grams H2O/gram of H2)
 1,99793544 grams of Sulphur Dioxide is produced when 1 mole of Sulphur is
burnt (1,99793544 grams SO2/grams of S)

Departing from these relationships we can calculate the Oxygen demand of a liquid or
solid fuel knowing only its elementary composition, for example:

Fuel  C H O N S A W
Light Fuel Oil (Bunker A)  0.834 0.117 0 0 0.04 0.009 0

0,834 ∙ 2,6641911 0,117


∙ 7,93668274 0,04


∙ 0,99793544 0


3.1904447

Symbolically, this expression could be written as:

2,6641911 ∙ 7,93668274 ∙ 0,99793544 ∙

,
,

3 
 
 Dr. Artemio J. Benítez Fundora
 

Where C, H, S and O are the mass fractions of these elements in the Fuel composition, as
was shown in Table I, and the Oxygen content on Fuel should be subtracted in order not to
alter the theoretical quantity of supplied oxygen to make a perfect combustion.

Using the former equation, it is possible to calculate the theoretical oxygen required for the
stoichiometric reaction of every fuel, as shown in the table below:

Table II: Theoretical Oxigen required for the combustion of the fuels indicated in Table I

Theoretical 
LIQUID FUELS Oxygen 
Required 

Gasoline  3.322 
Diesel  3.228 
Light Fuel Oil (Bunker A)  3.190 
Heavy Fuel Oil (Bunker B)  3.158 
Residual Fuel Oil (Bunker C) 3.118 
SOLID FUELS
Coal No. 1  2.474 
Coal No. 2  2.483 
Coal No. 3  2.006 
Coal No. 4  1.882 
Wood  1.369 
Rice Hull  1.379 

But the actual combustion of a fuel is not made with pure oxygen, instead, dry air is used
to supply the quantities of oxygen that are required for the theoretical combustion.

The Standard Molar Composition of Dry Air in the atmosphere is:

Mixing ratio Molecular

Standard Atmosphere
(mol/mol) Weight
Nitrogen (N2) 0,78 28,0134
Oxygen (O2) 0,21 31,9988
Argon (Ar) 0,0093 39,9480
Carbon dioxide (CO2) 365e-6 44,0095
-6
Neon (Ne) 18e 20,1797
-6
Ozone (O3) 0,01-10e 47,9982
-6
Helium (He) 5,2e 4,002602
-6
Methane (CH4) 1.7e 16,04246
Krypton (Kr) 1,1e-6 83,7980

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 Dr. Artemio J. Benítez Fundora
 

Hydrogen (H2) 500x10-9 2,01588

-9
Nitrous oxide (N2O) 320x10 44,0128
Dry Air -

Expressing the upper table in gravimetric form:

Mixing
ratio Molecular
Standard Atmosphere
(kg/kg) Weight

Nitrogen (N2) 0,7545364 28,0134

Oxygen (O2) 0,2320453 31,9988
Argon (Ar) 0,0128291 39,9480
Carbon dioxide (CO2) 5,55E-04 44,0095
Neon (Ne) 1,25E-05 20,1797
Ozone (O3) 1,66E-05 47,9982
Helium (He) 7,19E-07 4,0026
Methane (CH4) 9,42E-07 16,0425
Krypton (Kr) 3,18E-06 83,7980
Hydrogen (H2) 3,48E-08 2,0159
Nitrous oxide (N2O) 4,86E-07 44,0128
Dry Air 1 28,958778

11,4813405 ∙ 34,203161 ∙ 4,300606 ∙ 4.309503

∙
,
,

Considering that 4,3006606 are approximately 4,309503 (0,21 % of error), then:

, ∙ , ∙ , ∙


,
,

If the Fuel composition is supplied in %, then:

% %
, ∙ , ∙ ,
% %
∙

5 
 
 Dr. Artemio J. Benítez Fundora
 

Or also can be written as:

, ∙% , ∙% ,
∙ % %


,
,

Instead of considering the Theoretical Oxygen required for combustion, using the
theoretical dry air required expressions, we can recalculate the new values for the Table II
as:

Table III: Theoretical Oxigen and Theoretical Dry Air required for the combustion of the fuels
indicated in Table I

Theoretical 
FUEL Theoretical Air 
Oxygen 
kg dry air/kg 
LIQUID FUELS kg O2/kg Fuel 
Fuel 
Gasoline  3.322  14.318 
Diesel  3.228  13.910 
Light Fuel Oil (Bunker A)  3.190  13.749 
Heavy Fuel Oil (Bunker B)  3.158  13.611 
Residual Fuel Oil (Bunker C)  3.118  13.439 
SOLID FUELS   
Coal No. 1  2.474  10.661 
Coal No. 2  2.483  10.702 
Coal No. 3  2.006  8.645 
Coal No. 4  1.882  8.113 
Wood  1.369  5.898 
Rice Hull  1.379  5.942 

Normal Conditions of Environmental Air

But normally the air that is supplied to a combustion process, in boilers and steam
generators, is taking directly from the surrounding environment, and IS NOT DRY,
because it contents a small amount of water vapor called humidity.

The air humidity (d) can be obtained by knowing the local conditions of the weather
variables in the location, by the dry and wet bulb temperatures or by the dry bulb
temperature and the relative humidity in percent of the place; and using a psychrometric
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 Dr. Artemio J. Benítez Fundora
 

chart or by the psychrometric thermodynamic relationships of ASHRAE, it value can be

estimated accurately. Example:

Normal Weather Conditions for Coatzacoalcos, VER

Tdb = 35 °C and φ = 84 %
For this condition by the psychrometric chart:

The absolute humidity of air is 30 grams of water vapor per kilogram of dry air.

Also can be determined using the psychrometric thermodynamic relationships, as follows:

Barometric Pressure (PT) = 101325 Pa

Saturation Water Vapor Pressure (PSW) calculated by the dry bulb temperature (Tdb) as:

, ∙
610,78 ∙ ,
And using the following relationship:

∙
∙ 100

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 Dr. Artemio J. Benítez Fundora
 

Above we calculate the molecular weight of both components, so:

18,01528 100 ∙
∙
28,958778

Solving:
, ∙
610,78 ∙ , 5576,5866

84
18,01528 ∙ 5576,5866
∙ 100 0,03043521

28,958778 101325 5576,5866

30,43521

A little more accurate result than using the psychrometric chart.

Theoretical Humid Air required for the combustion of 1 kg of Fuel:

They can be re-written as:

∙ , ∙ , ∙ , ∙

% %
∙ , ∙ , ∙ ,
% %
∙

∙ , ∙% , ∙% ,
∙ % %


,
,

But d must be used in these equations, expressed in

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 Dr. Artemio J. Benítez Fundora
 

Actual Humid Air required for the combustion of 1 kg of Fuel:

The actual quantity of air supplied for combustion always is greater than the theoretical
humid air calculated by the fuel composition, due to different facts that difficult the correct
mixture air-fuel with an homogeneous distribution of the temperature in every place in
which the combustion process is done; mainly due to the fuel preparation before be burnt,
the combustion chamber design, the air distribution inside of it, etc. All these facts obligate
for granting a complete liberation of heat from the fuel reacting with air, that an excess of
oxidant must be supplied over the theoretical one.

This value is known as air excess coefficient and will be symbolized by the Greek letter α.
Normally the values of α varies according to the type of fuel to burn, and also taking into
account the conditions of the combustion chamber design; solid fuels are more difficult to
burn effectively and will need higher values of α (from 1,5 to 2,0) and because that is so
easy to pulverize liquid fuels by spraying, the liquid fuels will require lower values of α
(from 1,15 to 1,45), and finally, gaseous fuels easily mixtures with the combustion humid
air and the need of excess of air is minimum (α from 1,03 to 1,08).

The best recommend practice is to adjust this air excess coefficient in the boiler, steam
generator or combustion system directly, by minimizing progressively the formation of
carbon monoxide (CO) in the combustion gases exhausted that leave from these
equipment’s, until it almost disappears in the stream.

Then the actual humid air required for the combustion of 1 kg of fuel, is only equal to:

∙
Or as:

∙
∙ , ∙ , ∙ , ∙


,
,

9 
 
 Dr. Artemio J. Benítez Fundora
 

Theoretical Combustion Products generated in the combustion of 1 kg of

Fuel:

According to the Mass Conservation Law, if a quantity of Oxygen is required to burn 1 unit
of mass of a fuel, the combustion products generated are the sum of the quantity of
Oxygen required plus the part of the fuel elements that are converted to gaseous products;
the ash content of the fuel is excluded due to the fact that ashes generated during the
combustion are normally in solid form. By a simple mass balance we obtain:

If the combustion is made using the theoretical dry air, instead of pure Oxygen:

If the combustion is made using the theoretical humid air, instead of dry air:

And finally, if the combustion is made using the actual humid air, instead of theoretical
humid air:

These relationships are accurate, but do not offer any information about the chemical
composition of the combustion gases, very often needed to make corrections in excess air
coefficient for an optimal combustion process and to improve energy savings in boilers,
steam generators or combustion systems like fired heaters and incinerators.

Using the stoichiometric proportions obtained before for the quantity of combustion
products, we can write for 1 kg of fuel burned:

3,6641911
∙

For the combustion of Hydrogen present in 1 kg of Fuel:

8,93668274
∙

For the combustion of Sulphur present in 1 kg of Fuel:

1,99793544
∙

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 Dr. Artemio J. Benítez Fundora
 

For the Nitrogen present in 1 kg of Fuel and for the Nitrogen supplied with the theoretical
combustion air:

0,7545364 ∙

For the Water present in 1 kg of Fuel:

Then, the quantity of combustion products in the theoretical reaction of 1 kg of Fuel with
air:

It is to note, that there is no Oxygen in the combustion products, because all the Oxygen
supplied with the theoretical air have been consumed to generate CO2, SO2 and part of the
water present in gaseous form.

Because Hydrogen always reacts faster than Carbon and Sulphur, is quite common in
Combustion Technology to make an special group with the products formed by these two
last components of the fuel; named it as Tri-Atomic Gases (RO2):

So, we can write again, the equation for the sum of all combustion products as:

But all the flue gas analyzers, that are the type of equipment that measure the composition
of the combustion products that leaves the combustion system in a boiler, fired heater,
etc.; use to work with the combustion products in dry form, and gives the proportion of
each component in dry basis and in volumetric or molar form. So it is very interesting to
know the dry composition expected in a theoretical combustion of 1 kg of Fuel, as fired,
that can be calculated in mass basis by:

And the mass fractions are calculated simply by proportion:

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 Dr. Artemio J. Benítez Fundora
 

And the sum of these mass fractions must equal:

1
The molecular weight of dry combustion gases can be calculated in


by:

1


44,0095 64,0638 28,0134
And the volumetric or molar fractions of these gases can be calculated as:

∙ ,
44,0095 .

∙ ,
64,0638 .

∙ ,
28,0134 .

And again the sum of these molar or volumetric fractions must equal:

1 1

Due to the fact that a theoretical combustion is what is analyzed, for this condition, the
quantity of combustion gases is the minimum possible obtained, and the volumetric
concentration of RO2 is the maximum possible obtained for a fuel:

,
.

12 
 
 Dr. Artemio J. Benítez Fundora
 

This value only depends of the Fuel Composition or Ultimate Analysis, so there is a unique
value for each Fuel, and is obtained for the theoretical combustion, also known as perfect
combustion.

Example:

For the Light Fuel Oil (Bunker A) of the example before:

Fuel  C H O N S A W
Light Fuel Oil (Bunker A)  0.834 0.117 0 0 0.04 0.009 0

The theoretical quantity of dry air is 13,749 kg of dry air/ kg of Fuel, from Table III, and
according to the fuel composition, when 1 kg is burned, only 0,991 kg is transformed to
gaseous form, because the ash content (0,009 kg Ash/kg of Fuel), is separated during
combustion in solid form and precipitates to the bottom of the combustion chamber. Then,
the quantity of combustion products formed by kg of Fuel is:

1 13,749 0,991

14,740

Using the individual contributions of each component in the Fuel and in the Theoretical Air
supplied for the combustion process:

3,6641911
∙ 0,834 3,0559353774

1,99793544
∙ 0,04 0,0799174176

0 0,7545364 ∙ 13,749 10,3741209636

8,93668274
∙ 0,117 1,04559188058

Then:

3,0559353774 0,0799174176 1,04559188058 0

10,3741209636 14,55556563918

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 Dr. Artemio J. Benítez Fundora
 

Relative Error in %:

|14,74 14,55556563918|
∙ 100 ≅ 1,27 %
14,55556563918
This admissible error is due to the approximation of the coefficients that multiply the
composition terms in the individual equations for the calculation of every component of the
combustion gases.

The Dry Combustion Gases formed are:

3,0559353774 0,0799174176 10,3741209636

13,5099737586

And the mass fractions in dry gases are:

3,0559353774
0,2262
13,5099737586

0,0799174176
0,00592
13,5099737586

10,3741209636
0,76788
13,5099737586

And the sum of the mass fractions in dry gases is:

0,2262 0,00592 0,76788 1

It can be observed that the great part of the theoretical combustion gases is due to the
presence of Nitrogen, thus the molecular weight of the combustion products will be closer
to the molecular weight of Nitrogen (28,0134):

1
30,6341
0,2262 0,00592 0,76788
44,0095 64,0638 28,0134
Using this value, the volumetric fractions can be calculated as:

30,6341
∙ ∙ 0,2262
44,0095 44,0095

0,15745
.

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 Dr. Artemio J. Benítez Fundora
 

30,6341
∙ ∙ 0,00592
64,0638 64,0638

0.00283 ,
.

30,6341
∙ ∙ 0,76788
28,0134 28,0134

0.83972
.

And the sum of the volumetric fractions must be:

0,15745 0,00283 0,83972 1

And the maximum molar or volumetric content of Tri-Atomic Gases in the combustion
products of Light Fuel Oil (Bunker A) is:

0,16028

Or:

% ∙ 100 16,028 %

Actual Combustion Products generated in the combustion of 1 kg of Fuel:

The actual combustion process always is made with environmental air from the
surroundings of the plant and this atmospheric air is always humid in tropical zones or in
other latitudes during the spring and summer seasons diminishing in water content and in
temperature as winter season approaches.

Using the theoretical humid air in a combustion process generates an incomplete burning
of the fuel, due to the fact that the 3 “T’s” of the combustion ideal conditions are never
reached. For an ideal combustion it is necessary to make it at the highest possible
Temperature, because the combustion reactions accelerates exponentially with the
temperature, at the same time, there must be an intimate mixture between the fuel
components (C, H and S) with the Oxygen in the combustion zone at the level of a
molecular mixture that requires of a level of Turbulence that is almost impossible to
archive; and finally, the fuel and the oxidant (O) must be kept under this conditions
mentioned before enough Time to complete all the chemical reactions that will be needed
to obtain the complete combustion of the Carbon, Hydrogen an Sulphur presents in the
Fuel.

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 Dr. Artemio J. Benítez Fundora
 

Due to these reasons, it will be necessary to supply an extra quantity of oxygen to the
actual combustion process to grant the total burning of the fuel, and it is traduced in an
increase of the air needed above the theoretical air value.

The relationship between the actual air and the theoretical one was stated before as:

Then the quantity of actual air needed to burn effectively 1 kg of fuel is calculated by:

∙ ∙

When the quantity of air supplied is increased, also the quantity of combustion gases will
increases too, and a quantity of oxygen appears as a new combustion product, and also
the fraction of nitrogen increases above the value obtained by a theoretical combustion;
water in flue gases also increases due to the presence of humidity (moisture) in the air that
is introduced from the environment to the combustion process.

Thus the equations for calculate the combustion gases produced must be modified to
accomplish these new conditions.

These three equations remain the same:

,
∙

,
∙

,
∙

They are not affected either by the excess of air of by the moisture content (humidity) of
the air; but the rest must be modified as:

, ∙ ∙

To take into account the air excess, and:

∙ ∙

To take into account the water introduced as humidity with the actual air, and a new one:

16 
 
 Dr. Artemio J. Benítez Fundora
 

, ∙ ∙

To take into account the excess of oxygen that is not used in the combustion process
which was introduced with the actual air.

And the new equation to calculate the quantity of combustion gases formed by burning 1
kg of fuel will be:

∙ ∙

Or in individual products contribution:

The actual dry gases formed in this condition are:

And the new mass fractions on dry conditions:

And the sum of these mass fractions must equal:

17 
 
 Dr. Artemio J. Benítez Fundora
 

The molecular weight of the actual dry combustion gases can be calculated in


by:

, , , ,
And the volumetric or molar fractions of these gases can be calculated as:

∙ ,
, .

∙ ,
, .

∙ ,
, .

∙ ,
, .

And again the sum of these molar or volumetric fractions must equal:

The actual volumetric concentration of RO2 is:

.
,
.

For the example seen before, and considering a local absolute humidity in the atmospheric
air of 30 grams of water vapor per kilogram of dry air, and a coefficient of air excess of
1,18:

New data:

,
18 
 
 Dr. Artemio J. Benítez Fundora
 

For these conditions:

3,6641911
∙ 0,834 3,0559353774

1,99793544
∙ 0,04 0,0799174176

8,93668274
∙ 0,117 1,04559188058

And:

0 0,7545364 ∙ 1,18 ∙ 13,749 12,241462737048

0 0,03 ∙ 1,18 ∙ 13,749 0,4867146

Finally:

0,2320453 ∙ 1,18 1 ∙ 13,749 0,574270349346

The quantity of actual combustion gases formed by burning 1 kg of Light Fuel Oil (Bunker
A) is:

3,0559353774 0,0799174176 1,04559188058 0,4867146

12,241462737048 0,574270349346

17,483892361974

And the quantity of actual dry combustion gases is:

3,0559353774 0,0799174176 12,241462737048

0,574270349346 15,951585881394

The mass fraction for each component in the actual dry combustion gases is therefore:

3,0559353774
0,19158
15,951585881394

0,0799174176
0,00501
15,951585881394

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 Dr. Artemio J. Benítez Fundora
 

12,241462737048
0,76741
15,951585881394

0,574270349346
0,03600
15,951585881394

Checking the sum:

0,19158 0,00501 0,76741 0,03600 1

The Molecular Weight of the actual dry flue gases is:

1
0,19158 0,00501 0,76741 0,03600
44,0095 64,0638 28,0134 31,9988

30,63374

Then, the volumetric concentrations that will be expected for each component of the actual
dry flue gases are:

30,63374
∙ 0,19158 0,13335
44,0095 .

30,63374
∙ 0,00501 0,00240
64,0638 .

30,63374
∙ 0,76741 0,83919
28,0134 .

30,63374
∙ 0,03600 0,03446
31,9988 .

Checking the sum:

0,13335 0,00240 0,83919 0,03446 1,00094 ≅ 1

And finally, the RO2 content in the actual dry flue gas is:

0,13335 0,00240 0,13575 ,
.

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 Dr. Artemio J. Benítez Fundora
 

And introducing a new relationship:

,
, ≅ ,
,
The error in this estimation is:

|1,1807 1,18|
∙ 100 ≅ 0,0006 %
1,18
And therefore, it is possible to calculate the value of using the following equation:

Or conveniently simplified as:

,
,
,
But when the combustion process is not too complete, in flue gases appears a small
quantity of CO as a volumetric fraction , due to the incomplete burning of C that must
be added to obtain the true value of the air excess coefficient:

21