Question

Activity 1 – Combustion and Environment

Learning outcome
1. Apply the calculation for fundamentals of material balance of reactive system.
2. Calculate the parameter required for the combustion process.

Scenario
You have been assigned by the Department of Environment (DOE) to measure SO2 emission from a small industrial power plant. You have withdrawn and analyzed a gas sample from the boiler stack and obtain the following composition: 75.66% N2, 10.24% CO2, 8.27% H2O, 5.75% O2 and 0.0825% SO2. On the next day, you show these figures to the plant superintendent and he insists that the analysis must be incorrect, since the fuel was a natural gas containing methane and ethane and no sulfur. Then, you ask the superintendent if they ever burn another fuel and he replies that they sometimes use a fuel oil. However, the plant log shows that they were no wrong-doing when the measurement were made. Calculate the mole ratio of carbon to hydrogen in the fuel and use the result to prove that the fuel could not have been the natural gas.