Fuel fundamentals
Most fuels are hydrocarbons, that is, chemical compounds made up only of hydrogen and carbon. Hydrocarbons are part of the larger family of organic compounds. Any compound that contains a carbon atom is referred to as an organic compound. The reason is that carbon compounds were first identified in plants and animals, and organic means related to living things. Organic compounds are plentiful. More than 90 percent of all known compounds contain carbon.
A molecular formula indicates the number of atoms of each element in one molecule of a compound. For example the molecular formula for methane is CH4. A molecule of methane has one atom of carbon (C) and four atoms of hydrogen (H4). The molecular formula doesnt tell how the atoms in a compound are arranged. A structural formula will tell you approximately how the atoms are arranged.
Fig3 CH4 representationAt the moment the most important fuels as gasoline and diesel became from petroleum or crude oil. The crude oil was formed over millions of years from the remains of decomposed living organisms and is composed basically from hydrocarbons.
Gasoline is made up from primarily Paraffins and aromatics, and can be improved in terms of quality with the addition organic components.
Thats why we find different kinds of gasoline in the service stations. Generally the premium gasoline have an higher aromatics content than the normal gasoline as oxygen is also added to make the fuel work with higher compression ratio engines.
A pure chain of paraffin (C5H12) has a very good ignition performance but a very low knock resistance, thats why iso-paraffins, and benzene is added on the gasoline, these two components improve the knock resistance.
The knock resistance is measured by the octane level, gasoline with bigger knock resistance have bigger octane rates, these octane rates are...
More Chemical Engineering
essays:
Catalyst - Preparation and Characterization
... sites. Chemically, a poison is any compound resulting in strong adsorption. In practice, many different types are encountered. Examples are ammonia and methanol synthesis where carbon dioxide ...
Past, Present, and Future of Chemical Engineering
... of chemical engineers. This list includes the invention of the atomic bomb, advances in artificial organs, antibiotics and various other contributions of chemical engineers ...
Pipe corrosion
... must be selected carefully for its particular application. Different resins and compounds using in the plastic piping can significantly alter the pipes ... many chemicals used in industry aggressively corrode metal piping, but CPVC is inert to mineral acids, bases, salts and aliphatic hydrocarbons. John ...
The Role of Graphics in Process Control
... the chemical it is representing and the given color scheme. Causing the height of the bar to rise and fall according to a level sensor animates the bar. The level bar ...
Adsorption
... remove organic components from drinking water or aqueous wastes, colored impurities from sugar solutions and vegetable oils, and water from organic liquids ...
Haber Process.
... compounds needed to make explosives. Seeking to free Germany from dependence on Chile, a German chemist named Fritz Haber examined the direct combination reaction between nitrogen and ... The equilibrium mixture of N2 , H2 , and NH4 depends on ht initial concentration of each component. Harber and his ...
Absorption of Carbon Dioxide
... component balances. Note Figure 1. This plot examines the CO2 removed with time at the first liquid flow rate. The top curve is calculated from g.c. data whereas the bottom curve is calculated from percent carbonation ...
Sedimentation
... rate and is specified by the design engineer. Materials and MethodologyMaterialsSix (6) 1000 mL graduated cylindersCalcium carbonate (CaCO3 ... the initial settling rates. The height becomes significant during the compression of the solids towards the end of the sedimentation run ...