Energy from combustion reactions

Combustion is an oxidation-reduction reaction between a nonmetallic material and molecular oxygen. Combustion reactions are characteristically exothermic (energy releasing). A violent combustion reaction is the formation of water from hydrogen and oxygen. As discussed in Section 9.5, the energy from this reaction is used to power rockets into space. More common examples of combustion include the burning of wood and fossil fuels. The combustion of these and other carbon-based chemicals forms carbon dioxide and water. Consider, for example, the combustion of methane, the major component of natural gas ... 

In the sections that follow, we introduce terminology commonly used in the analysis of combustion reactors and discuss material balance calculations for such reactors. Methods of determining the energy that can be obtained from combustion reactions are given in Chapter 9. 

Combustion reactions are a type of redox reaction. They are important to us because most of our society s energy is derived from combustion reactions. Combustion reactions are characterized by the reaction of a substance with O2 to form one or more oxygen-containing compounds, often including water. Combustion reactions are exothermic (they emit heat). For example, as we saw in Section 7.3, natural gas (CH4) reacts with oxygen to form carbon dioxide and water. 

Oxidation. AH inorganic siUcon hydrides are readily oxidized. Silane and disilane are pyrophoric in air and form siUcon dioxide and water as combustion products thus, the soot from these materials is white. The activation energies of the reaction of silane with molecular and atomic oxygen have been reported (20,21). The oxidation reaction of dichlorosilane under low pressure has been used for the vapor deposition of siUcon dioxide (22). 

If the reaction is conducted both adiabatically and witli stoichiometric air. tlie resulting temperature is defined as tlie theoretical adiabatic flame temperature (TAFT). It represents tlie nia.xinuuii temperature tliat tlie products of combustion (flue) can acliieve if the reaction is conducted both stoichionietrically and adiabatically. For tliis condition, all tlie energy liberated from combustion at or near standard conditions (AH°c and/or AH°29s) appears as sensible heat in raising tlie temperature of tlie flue products, AHp, tliat is ... 

The regenerated catalyst supplies enough energy to heat the feed to the riser outlet temperature, to heat the combustion air to the flue gas temperature, to provide the endothermic heat of reaction, and to compensate for any heat losses to atmosphere. The source of this energy is the burning of coke produced from the reaction. 

In the combustion reaction as carried out in the calorimeter of Figure 7-2, the volume of the system is kept constant and pressure may change because the reaction chamber is sealed. In the laboratory experiments you have conducted, you kept the pressure constant by leaving the system open to the surroundings. In such an experiment, the volume may change. There is a small difference between these two types of measurements. The difference arises from the energy used when a system expands against the pressure of the atmosphere. In a constant volume calorimeter, there is no such expansion hence, this contribution to the reaction heat is not present. Experiments show that this difference is usually small. However, the symbol AH represents the heat effect that accompanies a chemical reaction carried out at constant pressure—the condition we usually have when the reaction occurs in an open beaker. 

ATP synthase reaction has been calculated as approximately 51.6 kJ. It follows that the total energy captured in ATP per mole of glucose oxidized is 1961 kJ, or approximately 68% of the energy of combustion. Most of the ATP is formed by oxidative phosphorylation resulting from the reoxidation of reduced coenzymes by the respiratory chain. The remainder is formed by substrate-level phosphorylation (Table 17—1). 

As an example that uses structural formulas and Equation, consider the energy change that takes place during the combustion reaction of propane (C3 Hg). Recall from Chapter 3 that combustion is a reaction with molecular oxygen. The products of propane combustion are carbon dioxide and water ... 

Figure 6-17 illustrates a constant-volume calorimeter of a type that is often used to measure q for combustion reactions. A sample of the substance to be burned is placed inside the sealed calorimeter in the presence of excess oxygen gas. When the sample bums, energy flows from the chemicals to the calorimeter. As in a constant-pressure calorimeter, the calorimeter is well insulated from its surroundings, so all the heat released by the chemicals is absorbed by the calorimeter. The temperature change of the calorimeter, with the calorimeter s heat capacity, gives the amount of heat released in the reaction. 

C06-0136. The heat required to sustain animais that hibernate comes from the biochemicai combustion of fatty acids, one of which is arachidonic acid. For this acid, (a) determine its structurai formuia (b) write its baianced combustion reaction (c) use average bond energies to estimate the energy released in the combustion reaction and (d) caicuiate the mass of arachidonic acid needed to warm a 500-kg bear from 5 to 25 °C. (Assume that the average heat capacity of bear flesh is 4.18 J/g K.)... 

One main advantage of such a power source is the direct transformation of the chemical energy of methanol combustion into electrical energy. Hence, the reversible cell potential, can be calculated from the Gibbs energy change, AG, associated with the overall combustion reaction of methanol (1), by the equation ... 

Combustion of fuels is an exothermic reaction. Explain how the heat energy from this type of reaction is often used to do useful work. 

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