33 Types of Fuel – Renewable and Non-renewable

S. Thilagavathi

Introduction

Resources that are capable of burning have been considered as fuel. For Fuels to get ignited, it requires adequate oxygen and in turn emits less carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides. Highest production of Carbon dioxide emissions are seen in liquid fuels than solid fuels such as coal, peat and charcoal. This module comprises of defining fuels or energy, its classification, renewable and nonrenewable sources of energy, sources of energy, their applications, merits and demerits of energy sources.

Learning Objectives

•To explore the classification and sources of fuels

•To know the applications of different types of fuels

•  To enable students how to conserve energy

Fuels are materials with potential energy that burns to give heat or power. All fuels consist of any combustible materials such as carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, sulphur etc. fuel may be solid, liquid or in gaseous state. When they come in contact with any reactor, are capable of producing heat or energy.

Renewable

Heat or Energy that is derived from natural sources such as sun, wind, rain, tides are termed as renewable energy. The costs of production from these sources are economical. Availability of those resources of renewable energy is plenty in nature. Besides they are hazard free and eco friendly sources of energy available on earth.

For eg: The cheapest source of energy that is best utilized by human to generate heat energy is solar energy. Similarly, wind, geothermal, biomass from plants and cow dung’s, are also used to meet the fuel demands in the community.

Non-Renewable

These are the sources of energy, one which exist on the earth in limited quantity and will vanish as they have been utilized in due course. Non-renewable sources are capable of producing hazardous effect to human population and not environmental friendly. Regeneration is possible with respect to non renewable energy sources and can be re- generated in a short duration, thus they are called non-renewable. For example: Fossil fuels, natural gas, oil and coal.

Classifications of fuels

Major classifications of fuel are based on the State in which they are and sources of availability

Classification of fuels based on state of fuels

Classification of fuels based on sources of availability

Fuels are available by nature and manmade. Accordingly fuels are classified as natural and manmade fuels. One which is available in the environment and can be used without any alterations for fueling is termed as natural fuels. Example wood, coal etc., The fuel, one which requires alterations for ease of transport, and compatibility in handling are considered manmade fuels. Charcoal, cokes, briquettes

Advantages of natural fuels

• Ease to transport.
• Non explosive
• No intended cost of production
• Has moderate ignition temperature
• Less expensive
• Byproducts can be used for many purposes

Disadvantages of natural fuels

• Occupies space
• Produces more smoke(pollution)

Advantages of manmade fuels

• Easy to transport
• Easy to handle
• Easy to compress in suitable containers

Disadvantages of manmade fuels

• Produces more ash content
• Produces high heat
• Ignites with clinker formation.
• Their combustion operation cannot be controlled easily.
• Their cost of handling is high.

Wood as a Fuel

Wood is the oldest type of fuel and is used as a fuel in time immemorable. It is used for cooking as well as for heating in all homes and also in small outlets like dhabas, small hotels and for bulk production units in almost every villages, in small towns and cities. In some parts of our country mainly in the interior parts of hill tops and rural areas, wood is being used.

Wood is a vegetable tissue of trees and bushes. It consists of mainly cellular tissue and lignin and lesser parts of fat and tar, and sugar. Ash content of wood is negligible. The ash consists of mineral water that is found in the wood itself, with an admixture of some impurities which occur during transportation, etc. Pure ash from wood is white in colour.

Compositions of Wood

• The dried trunk and branches of trees and twigs of all other plants
• Wood consists of cellular tissue, lignin, fat, tar, and sugar.
•  On ignition cellular tissues and sugars burn to produce heat energy

Coal as fuel

Coal is a sedimentary rock made up of carbon and hydrocarbons and is combustible. It is black or brownish-black in colour. Coal is made from decomposed matters of trees and plants. The trees that grew in great deep jungles, after their lifespan decompose and become fossils if undisturbed for hundreds of millions of years they develop into coal. By the process of carbonization, those fossils become coal. Grading of Coal is ranked very high according to the longer period of carbonization it undergoes. Example: Anthracite. Peat is a type of Coal that has not undergone deep carbonization which is ranked low.

• Coal powder is allowed to burn in a combustion chamber that catches fire of a boiler where it is burnt at a high temperature.
• The coal that is burnt produces heat energy which converts water into steam in tubes lining the boiler.
• The high-pressure steam is then passed into a turbine, which is a kind of large propeller-with blades which rotate. The steam induces high speed rotation of the blades of turbine shaft. Then the steam is condensed and brought to the boiling chamber where it is heated again.
• The rotation of shaft attracts the wire coils and magnets in a generator connected to it. Thus they get charged in the magnetic field and produces electricity.
• Electricity obtained from the generator is sent to the transformer where it is stored and regulated.

Acid rain, sulfur oxide and carbon dioxide emission, unstable land, hazardous waste etc. were identified as the problems emerged out of coal energy production. The problems evolved out of coal energy is comparatively higher than the one evolve in oil digging

Various types of coal exist in the earth that are used as fuel by humans includes Anthracite, bituminous coal, lignite, and sub-bituminous coal

Charcoal as a fuel

Charcoal is one of the solid fuels used for cooking and hea ting purposes. Charcoal, is a destructive distillation product from wood. Charcoal ignites easily and emits uniform fire with less or no smoke. Being in solid state it is easy to store without any cautious measure.

Coke as a fuel

It is product from destructive distillation of coal. It is a solid residue. Soft and hard varities of cokes are available. The temperature at which they are distillated determines the nature of the coke. Soft coke is the one distillated at a temperature range of 600-650oC. As a domestic fuel it is used widely without much smoke. Hard coke is the one distillated at the temperature range of 1200-1400oC. Its application is wider in case of engineered metallurgical process.

Briquettes as a fuel

The dust from wood mill, slack, residues from lignite, coke and culm are used for manufacturing into briquettes. Regular shapes can be obtained from Compression of those residues with a binding agent. After compression into shapes, it remains harder and little friable in nature. It is one of the important ways to conserve fuels.

Bagasse as a fuel

In sugarcane mill, stalks of sugarcane after extraction of sugarcane juice which is available is termed as Bagasse. They are fibrous materials that have the similar properties comparable to wood. Highly inflammable with good efficiency are the marked features of this fuel. They are dried and used as fuel

Biomass as a renewable energy

Biomass is a fancy name for material from plants and animals. Some kind of biomass can be burnt to produce energy. Example: wood chips, corn. Some type of garbage used to produce electricity. Some type of biomass can be converted to liquid fuels called biofuels.

A biomass material includes decomposed materials of forest debris, dried field wastes, cow dung and manure and some types of waste residues from edible and nonedible components. A biomass material becomes fuel by undergoing decomposition with the help of certain micro organisms and some processing techniques. One such type wastes used are wood pulp by paper milling industry, biogas production or gobar gas production, incinerated to ash for brick making and so on.

Biomass as a source of fuel to produces energy and is renewable. The availability of waste residues from the environment is unavoidable. Wastes from industries and forest resources are abundant. Recycling of perishable and edible plant materials are of negligible significance. Besides, availability of resources for biomass materials is less expensive

Biomass as a fuel

Biomass is the waste from the environment that are composed of renewable organic matters that are disposed off in the pits, open lands, incinerators, or left as fodders. Energy produced from biomass is carbon neutral electricity. When biomass materials are burned, the energy in biomass is released as heat. The specific hood present in the fireplace converts biomass components into heat energy.

In biomass power plants, waste from wood or other hazard free industrial wastes are burnt to produce steam, which when runs through a turbine produces electricity, or provides heat to industries and homes. Newer technologies and combustion processes have fortunately developed certain advanced facilities to control the pollution from the biomass which when compared to fossil fuel is low.

Drawbacks of Biomass energy

Whether it is a biomass fuel or fossil fuel, the equipment requirement differs for each. The design of equipment and the purposes is limited. As with any electrical generation process, the facility needs a steady supply of fuel. When anything is burned, it can create emissions and ash.

Liquid fuels

Petroleum is a byproduct of coal mining and is a natural fuel. It is a dark greenish brown, viscous mineral oil, found deep in earth’s crust. Hydrocarbons such as paraffins, cycloparaffins or olefins, napthenes, and aromatics which bind together with small amount of organic compounds containing oxygen nitrogen and sulphur are the components of petroleum.

Classification of Petroleum

•  Paraffinic group
• Asphalitc  group
• Mixed group

Manmade artificial liquid fuels

Kerosene, Diesel oil, Gasoline, Heavy oil, Naphtha, Lubricating oils are some of the manmade artificial liquid fuels. These are extracted by fractional distillation method of crude petroleum or liquefaction of coal

Gasoline or Petrol

From crude petroleum, gasoline or petrol is Synthesized or obtained by fractional distillation methods.

Diesel Fuel

It is also one of the byproduct obtained between 250-320oC from factional distillation process of petroleum synthesis.

Kerosene Oil

At the range of 180-250oC Kerosene oil is obtained during fractional distillation of crude Petroleum.

Heavy Oil

At the range of 320-400oC heavy oil is exists as a fraction of the fractional distillation of crude Petroleum.

Gaseous fuels

Natural Gas

It is a component of petroleum digging process. Natural gas is available in oil bearing regions which exist as a part of petroleum deposits.

Manmade gaseous fuels

Manufactured gases are existing in solid and liquid forms. Coal gas, water gas, blast producer gas, furnace gas, and oil gas are some of the important manufactured gaseous fuels whose characteristics are discussed below

Coal gas

Carbonization in either coke ovens or gas- making retorts at about 1300oC by burning producer gas and air mixture and coal gas is obtained.

Coal gas is a colourless gas and which is odorous too.

It is light in weight and the flame emits smoke when it burns.

Wate r gas

Water gas is the admixture of two combustible gases like Carbon monoxide and Hydrogen and little fraction of non-combustible gases.

In a reactor, passing alternatively, steam and little air at about 900 to 1000oC over a bed of red hot coal or coke water gas is produced.

Oil gas

Oil gas is obtained by cracking kerosene oil. In a stout red hot cast iron retort, filled with oil, a thin steam is allowed to fall on the surface, which is heated in coal fired furnace to produce gas which is collected in barrels for further use

Energy Conservation

Restaurants are the most energy utilizing industries all over the world. Compared to large restaurants small scale institutions like’s coffee shops, small food outlets, drive inns, resorts, juice and food corners consume more energy. Substantial consumption of fuel is required for long hours of operation of industries, specialized with automotive equipments. The energy consumption is high in foodservice institutions and is often wasteful than any other large industry.

Foods such as vegetables and fruits, groceries and instant food product outlets and organic food outlets which are mushrooming nowadays consumes much energy in the form of instituting air-conditions and special equipments to preserve them for longer shelf life.

Cooking and food preparation consumes the largest portion of energy use in any food service operations, followed by heating, ventilation and cooling (HVAC) of food products and the service units.

Tips to conserve energy at home level

• Home level techniques like using metal such as stainless steel and not clay pans for cooking,
• Keep the pan closed whenever possible,
• Make sure the flame is colorless or blue,
• Use  pressure cookers for cooking,
• The oven should not be opened frequently and similarly re frigerator and freezer doors,
• Do not keep open or remove a lid from a pot while cooking,
• Thawing of frozen foods in the refrigerator and at room temperature before cooking reduces cooking times
• Optimize the use of a preheated oven by cooking several dishes, either at once, or in a row,
• Keep appliances and pots/pans clean before initiating cooking in stove,
• Practice Cooking several meals at once,
• Avoid keeping hot or warm food in the refrigerator,
• Soak pulses before cooking to reduce cooking time
• Use a lid when boiling water
• Use flat vessels for cooking

Cost of energy in food service industries

Energy conservation is a very cost effective measure, and it is relatively a low expenditure process. While considering the profit margin, there is a need to increase sales and table turnover with efficiency. It is quite inexpensive with regard to food processing operations in the competitive market trend. Energy conservation efforts do not require huge cost or specialized techniques, but requires major changes in attitudes and habit, and adoption of new equipment or technology that promises profit on investment.

Need for Energy Conservation

In order to conserve the depleting resources for the future generation, energy utilization and needs to be conserved as well to protect our environment from drastic changes. The higher the rate at which the energy is being produced and consumed higher the threat it can pose to our environment in many ways. In addition, it helps us to save the environment. Energy conservation can reduce those impacts and can protect the environment. The cost of energy is advances every year. In real, it is important to know the useful of energy conservation and avoid wastage. Home energy audits will develop custom solutions to keep the energy efficiency at home as well in the food industries at its highest level.

Energy conservation process is not a tedious job. It can start from our home itself, some of the practices includes, turning off the lights during day hours, washing clothes in cold water than hot water or using public transport rather using our own vehicle. Sharing vehicles those coming from the same area later similar kind of possible practices can be implemented on much wider scale like society level, at city level, district level and at country level will bring about energy reserves for future generation. In addition, this practice will bring down your monthly bills and improve your other essential expenditure pattern thereby a special recognition in the society too. Conserving energy today is conserving enviro nment for future generation, so help protect environment.

Methods to conserve energy in restaurants

Human habit is the possible and the single most important energy conservation effort in the earth. Unless the energy efficient equipments are used correctly or properly maintained, it does not save energy. Food service institutions must be aware of the effective use of the instrument. Efforts should be taken by the food service institutions by providing the training and monitor daily activities of all staff to ensure successful sustainability efforts.

Summary

Fuels are used for cooking, washing and heating in food service industries. The source of fuel and forms of fuels determine the cost. A characteristic of fuels gives an idea about the nature and knowhow of using it as a fuel. Energy or fuel conservation is an important factor to be considered at this moment.