Ratio, equivalence

The equivalence ratio, defined as the actual air-feed ratio/air-feed ratio for complete combustion, has the strongest influence on the performance of gasifiers. It affects temperature of the bed, gas quality, and thermal efficiency. An increase of the equivalence ratio causes low-pressure drops, increase of the gas production rate when using air, increase of temperature. A decrease of the equivalence ratio results in decreases of the combustible components and the heating value of the produced gas. 

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The Expression, Calculation and Importance of the Equivalence Ratio in Different Combustion Systems... 

In practice, for motors, turbines or furnaces, the conditions of combustion are frequently far from those corresponding to stoichiometry and are characterized either by an excess or by an insufficiency of fuel with respect to oxygen. The composition of the fuel-air mixture is expressed by the equivalence ratio, (p, defined by the relation / 5 r)... 

The equivalence ratio refers to the more noble reactant, that is, the fuel, and the mixture is rich or lean according to whether the fuel is in excess or deficient with respect to the stoichiometry. 

In a general manner, diesel engines, jet engines, and domestic or industrial burners operate with lean mixtures and their performance is relatively insensitive to the equivalence ratio. On the other hand, gasoline engines require a fuel-air ratio close to the stoichiometric. Indeed, a too-rich mixture leads to an excessive exhaust pollution from CO emissions and unburned hydrocarbons whereas a too-lean mixture produces unstable combustion (reduced driveability and misfiring). 

If one imagine.s that the fuel is used in the liquid state in the form of droplets —as in the case of fuel injection— the specific energy of the motor fuel (SE) is expressed in kilojoules per kilogram of air utilized, under predetermined conditions of equivalence ratio (stoichiometry for example). The SE is none other than the NHY /r quotient where r represents the previously defined stoichiometric ratio. 

Several parameters come into the relation between density and equivalence ratio. Generally, the variations act in the following sense a too-dense motor fuel results in too lean a mixture causing a potential unstable operation a motor fuel that is too light causes a rich mixture that generates greater pollution from unburned material. These problems are usually minimized by the widespread use of closed loop fuel-air ratio control systems installed on new vehicles with catalytic converters. 

The diesel engine operates, inherently by its concept, at variable fuel-air ratio. One easily sees that it is not possible to attain the stoichiometric ratio because the fuel never diffuses in an ideal manner into the air for an average equivalence ratio of 1.00, the combustion chamber will contain zones that are too rich leading to incomplete combustion accompanied by smoke and soot formation. Finally, at full load, the overall equivalence ratio... 

Moreover, a limit to maximum density is set in order to avoid smoke formation at full load, due to an increase in average equivalence ratio in the combustion chamber. 

Eurosuper gasoline Engine speed 1500 rpm Equivalence ratio 1,00 Sample point upstream of catalytic converter Relative reactivity factor Total teactivity 2.66 g O lg HC... 

Since the 1960 s, two ideas have gained our attention the struggle against pollution before the first oil crisis of 1973 and the diminution of consumption since. One can consider, in fact, that the two objectives are linked. Indeed, any maladjustment of a fuel admission system will modify the equivalence ratio of the mix. The consequences are modifications, on one hand, of the consumption and on the other, of the nature and the quantity of pollutants emitted CO, NO, and unburned hydrocarbons. 

Where T)is flame temperature in K MC is moisture content of the waste, expressed on a total weight basis SR is defined as stoichiometric ratio or moles O2 avadable/moles O2 required for complete oxidation of the carbon, hydrogen, and sulfur in the fuel, ie, 1/SR = equivalence ratio and is temperature of the combustion air, expressed in K. In Fnglish units, this equation is as follows ... 

Fig. 5. NO formation in a hydrogen engine having spark at 17° before top-dead center (BTC) rpm, 2900 and compression ratio, 5.5 1, where A is nitric oxide B, backfire C, power and D, brake thermal efficiency, (a) Effect of equivalence ratio, ( ) and (b), effect of water induction at 0 = 0.625.

A specially designed water induction system was used in the Provo-Orem bus to increase the water induction mass ratio when operating at or near full power setting. Engine performance data as a function of the equivalence ratio and water injection mass ratio are shown in Figure 7. 

The resulting overall energy balance for the plant at nominal load conditions is shown in Table 3. The primary combustor operates at 760 kPa (7.5 atm) pressure the equivalence ratio is 0.9 the heat loss is about 3.5%. The channel operates in the subsonic mode, in a peak magnetic field of 6 T. AH critical electrical and gas dynamic operating parameters of the channel are within prescribed constraints the magnetic field and electrical loading are tailored to limit the maximum axial electrical field to 2 kV/m, the transverse current density to 0.9 A/cm , and the Hall parameter to 4. The diffuser pressure recovery factor is 0.6. 

FAR or AFR. The composition of a mixture of fuel and air or oxidant is often specified according to the Fuel to Air Ratio (FAR), and can be expressed on a mass, molar, or volume basis. The FAR is normalized to the stoichiometric composition by defining the equivalence ratio ( ) as in equation 1, where = mass of fuel, kg and = mass of oxidizer, kg. 

Fig. 3. Quenching distance as function of equivalence ratio for hydrocarbon mixtures with air (1), where x = methane, = propane, A = propylene, and...

Flame Temperature. The adiabatic flame temperature, or theoretical flame temperature, is the maximum temperature attained by the products when the reaction goes to completion and the heat fiberated during the reaction is used to raise the temperature of the products. Flame temperatures, as a function of the equivalence ratio, are usually calculated from thermodynamic data when a fuel is burned adiabaticaHy with air. To calculate the adiabatic flame temperature (AFT) without dissociation, for lean to stoichiometric mixtures, complete combustion is assumed. This implies that the products of combustion contain only carbon dioxide, water, nitrogen, oxygen, and sulfur dioxide. 

Most of the commercial gas—air premixed burners are basically laminar-dow Bunsen burners and operate at atmospheric pressure. This means that the primary air is induced from the atmosphere by the fuel dow with which it mixes in the burner passage leading to the burner ports, where the mixture is ignited and the dame stabilized. The induced air dow is determined by the fuel dow through momentum exchange and by the position of a shutter or throtde at the air inlet. Hence, the air dow is a function of the fuel velocity as it issues from the orifice or nozzle, or of the fuel supply pressure at the orifice. With a fixed fuel dow rate, the equivalence ratio is adjusted by the shutter, and the resulting induced air dow also determines the total mixture dow rate. 

If the substitute fuel is of the same general type, eg, propane for methane, the problem reduces to control of the primary equivalence ratio. For nonaspiring burners, ie, those in which the air and fuel suppHes are essentially independent, it is further reduced to control of the fuel dow, since the air dow usually constitutes most of the mass dow and this is fixed. For a given fuel supply pressure and fixed dow resistance of the feed system, the volume dow rate of the fuel is inversely proportional to. ypJ. The same total heat input rate or enthalpy dow to the dame simply requires satisfactory reproduction of the product of the lower heating value of the fuel and its dow rate, so that WI = l- / remains the same. WI is the Wobbe Index of the fuel gas, and... 

Metal soaps are composed of a metal and acid portion suppHed as solutions in solvent or oil. The general formula for a metal soap is (RCOO). In the case of neutral soaps, x equals the valence of the metal M. Acid soaps contain free acid (positive acid number) whereas neutral (normal) soaps contain no free acid (zero acid number) that is, the ratio of acid equivalents to metal equivalents is greater than one in the acid soap and equal to one in the neutral soap. Basic soap is characterized by a higher metal-to-acid equivalent ratio than the normal metal soap. Particular properties are obtained by adjusting the basicity. 

Excess Air for Combustion More than the theoretical amount of air is necessary in practice to achieve complete combustion. This excess air is expressed as a percentage of the theoretical air amount. The equivalence ratio is defined as the ratio of the actual fuel-air ratio to the stoichiometric fuel-air ratio. Equivalence ratio values less than... 

Equivalence ratio. The ratio of the oxygen eontent at stoiehiometrie eonditions and aetual eonditions ... 

With torroidal air flow, combustors will operate without visible smoke when properly developed for a primary-zone equivalence ratio below 1.5. Visible smoke is an air-pollution problem. 

In general, it has been found that much visible smoke is formed in small, local fuel-rich regions. The general approach to eliminating smoke is to develop leaner primary zones with an equivalence ratio between 0.9 and 1.5. Another supplementary way to eliminate smoke is to supply relatively small quantities of air to those exact, local, over-rich zones. 

Cp a = specific heat of air at constant pressure AT jj = temperature rise for stoichiometric combustion D = surface average particle diameter Pa = air density Pf = fuel density

mass transfer number... 

The model assumes that liquid evaporation is always the rate controlling step. At some point the model must fail, since as droplet size approaches zero the predicted MIE approaches zero rather than the MIE of the vapor in air. In practice, droplets having diameters less than 10-40 /rm completely evaporate ahead of the flame and burn as vapor (5-1.3). The model also predicts that the MIE continuously decreases as equivalence ratio is increased, although as discussed above, combustion around droplets is not restrained by the overall stoichiometry and naturally predominates at the stoichiometric concentration. It is recommended that the model be applied only to droplet diameters above about 20/rm and equivalence ratios less than about one. 

FIQURE A-6-1.2. Schematic effect of particle size and equivalence ratio on MIE of aluminum. 

Isocyanate is added to provide an equivalent ratio of 1.5-2 isocyanatc/alcohol. The higher the ratio, the more free isocyanate, and diisocyanate monomer, and the lower the viscosity. Most common is 4,4 -methylene bisphenyl diisocyanate (MDl). Its saturated analog or other aliphatic isocyanates are used where light stability is critical. Most common is isophorone diisocyanate. 

Equivalence Ratio The ratio of fuel concentration in the actual fuel-air mixture divided by the fuel concentration in a stoichiometric mixture. 

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