Fossil Fuel – What is Fossil Fuel?
Fossil Fuel – What is Fossil Fuel –
A fuel is a physical substance whose combustible substances are capable of releasing a significant amount of heat when reacting with oxygen.
By state of aggregation, all organic fuels are classified as solid, liquid, and gaseous, and, depending on the method of production, as natural or artificial.
Natural organic fuels include those fuels that are used in the form in which they are found in nature, while artificial fuels include those that are products of thermal, chemical or physical processing of natural fuels.
Natural solid fuels include firewood, wood waste, peat, shale, brown and hard coal, semi-anthracite and anthracite; artificial fuels include charcoal, coal and peat briquettes, semi-coke, and shale cake. Natural liquid fuels include only oil; artificial fuels include gasoline, kerosene, diesel fuel, diesel oil, fuel oil (oil and coal), and shale oil.
Natural gaseous fuels include natural combustible gas, while artificial fuels include generator, water, coke, semi-coke and blast furnace gases, underground gasification gas, as well as petroleum refining products – cracking gas and pyrolysis gas.
What substances do solid and liquid organic fuels consist of?
Solid and liquid organic fuels consist of the following substances: carbon C, hydrogen H, sulfur S, oxygen O, nitrogen N, moisture W, and ash A. All carbon C, hydrogen H, and hot sulfur are combustible, while oxygen O, nitrogen N, water W, and ash A are noncombustible.
Moisture and ash constitute the external ballast of the fuel, while oxygen and nitrogen constitute the internal ballast.
Fuel carbon is a high-calorific combustible substance found in the fuel in the form of compounds with other substances.
Its content in the fuel ranges from 55 to 95%. Complete combustion of 1 kg of it releases 33,939 kJ (8,100 kcal) of heat.
Hydrogen in fuel is a light gas at normal temperatures. It is almost 134.5 times lighter than air. The mass of 1 liter of hydrogen under normal conditions is 0.09 g.
Hydrogen is the most combustible substance in the fuel mass. Complete combustion of 1 kg of hydrogen with the formation of water vapor releases 121,091 kJ (28,900 kcal) of heat. Its content in the fuel ranges from 1.5 to 14.9%.
