Heat contents

As one raises the temperature of the system along a particular path, one may define a heat capacity C = D p th/dT. (The tenn heat capacity is almost as unfortunate a name as the obsolescent heat content for// alas, no alternative exists.) However several such paths define state functions, e.g. equation (A2.1.28) and equation (A2.1.29). Thus we can define the heat capacity at constant volume Cy and the heat capacity at constant pressure as... 

Enthalpy. Enthalpy is the thermodynamic property of a substance defined as the sum of its internal energy plus the quantity Pv//, where P = pressure of the substance, v = its specific volume, and J = the mechanical equivalent of heat. Enthalpy is also known as total heat and heat content. 

Petroleum. Thermal cracking (pyrolysis) of petroleum or fractions thereof was an important method for producing gas in the years following its use for increasing the heat content of water gas. Many water gas sets operations were converted into oil-gasification units (55). Some of these have been used for base-load city gas supply, but most find use for peak-load situations in the winter. 

Od condensed from the released volatdes from the second stage is filtered and catalyticady hydrotreated at high pressure to produce a synthetic cmde od. Medium heat-content gas produced after the removal of H2S and CO2 is suitable as clean fuel. The pyrolysis gas produced, however, is insufficient to provide the fuel requirement for the total plant. Residual char, 50—60% of the feed coal, has a heating value and sulfur content about the same as feed coal, and its utilisation may thus largely dictate process utdity. 

Fuels ndEfficiency. Natural gas, oil, and electricity are the primary sources of energy propane is used as backup reserve in emergencies. Natural gas is the least expensive and most frequently used fuel, with heat content ranging from 34—45 MJ/nf (900—1200 Btu/ft ) for raw gas and approximately 3 MJ/m (80 Btu/fT) for air-gas mixtures. Fuel oil has heat content between 39—43 MJ/L (139,600—153,000 Btu/U.S. gal). Fuel oil is viscous at low temperature and must be heated before being fed to atomizing burners where it is mixed with air for combustion. 

Alternative representations of stream temperature and energy have been proposed. Perhaps the best known is the heat-content diagram, which represents each stream as an area on a graph (3) where the vertical scale is temperature, and the horizontal is heat capacity times flow rate. Sometimes this latter quantity is called capacity rate. The stream area, ie, capacity rate times temperature change, represents the enthalpy change of the stream. 

Rates of production of lignite have continued to increase since 1960. In 1980 374 x 10 tons of coal equivalent (tee) were produced. One tee is the amount of energy available from combustion of a metric ton of coal having a heat content of 29.3 GJ, ie, 29.3 MJ/kg (12, 600 Btu/lb) (3). In 1989 this figure had risen to 460 x 10 tee. This 23% increase is somewhat less than the 28% increase in hard coal production during this period (see Coal). In 1990 the 1130 X 10 metric tons of lignite produced worldwide represented 24% of the total coal production. 

To recover the sensible heat content of water-saturated exit kiln air, heat exchangers are being employed to contact the exit air with incoming fresh air. Fuel savings of about 30% are being achieved. 

Operational Characteristics. Oxygen generation from chlorate candles is exothermic and management of the heat released is a function of design of the total unit iato which the candle is iacorporated. Because of the low heat content of the evolved gas, the gas exit temperature usually is less than ca 93°C. Some of the heat is taken up within the candle mass by specific heat or heat of fusion of the sodium chloride. The reacted candle mass continues to evolve heat after reaction ends. The heat release duting reaction is primarily a function of the fuel type and content, but averages 3.7 MJ/m (100 Btu/fT) of evolved oxygen at STP for 4—8 wt % iron compositions. 

Combustion. The primary reaction carried out in the gas turbine combustion chamber is oxidation of a fuel to release its heat content at constant pressure. Atomized fuel mixed with enough air to form a close-to-stoichiometric mixture is continuously fed into a primary zone. There its heat of formation is released at flame temperatures deterruined by the pressure. The heat content of the fuel is therefore a primary measure of the attainable efficiency of the overall system in terms of fuel consumed per unit of work output. Table 6 fists the net heat content of a number of typical gas turbine fuels. Net rather than gross heat content is a more significant measure because heat of vaporization of the water formed in combustion cannot be recovered in aircraft exhaust. The most desirable gas turbine fuels for use in aircraft, after hydrogen, are hydrocarbons. Fuels that are liquid at normal atmospheric pressure and temperature are the most practical and widely used aircraft fuels kerosene, with a distillation range from 150 to 300 °C, is the best compromise to combine maximum mass —heat content with other desirable properties. For ground turbines, a wide variety of gaseous and heavy fuels are acceptable. 

Solution. Figure 12-8 shows the path on a psychrometric chart. The leaving dry-bulb temperature is obtained directly from Fig. 12-2 as 72.2 F. Since the spray water enters at the wet-bulb temperature of 70 F and there is no heat added to or removed from it, this is by definition an adiabatic process and there will be no change in wet-bulb temperature. The only change in enthalpy is that from the heat content of the makeup water. This can be demonstrated as follows ... 

Methods for numerical analyses such as tlris can be obtained from commercial software, and the advent of the computer has considerably eased the work required to obtain numerical values for heat distribution and profiles in a short time, or even continuously if a monitor supplies the boundary values of heat content or temperature during an operation. 

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