Ultimate analysis of solid and liquid fuels

| June 18, 2022, 9:55 p.m.

Coal and petroleum are the widely used fuels in the world. Although researchers are experimenting with new sustainable energy sources, fossil fuels are still a mainstay of the energy supply around the world and will remain for several decades. For effective utilization of energy from these fuels, it is important to know the composition of the fuel. Knowledge of what fuel is really made up of will help in improving the performance of systems utilizing them.

There are mainly two types of methods being used in analyzing the composition of the fuel, proximate analysis and ultimate analysis.

1. Proximate analysis

This method generally determines macro parameters of the fuel, such as moisture content, volatile matter, fixed carbon, CCR, acidity, and ash content. This method is more useful for commercial purposes and framing regulatory requirements.

2. Ultimate analysis

The ultimate analysis of fuel determines the elemental composition of the fuel, that is the percentage of carbon, hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, nitrogen, and ash. This can be more useful in the combustion analysis of fuel. It is always better to use test results of actual fuel, however for initial calculations, the ultimate analysis given in the tables below can be used. Values that are unknown, are represented by "-".