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Energy Sources, Part A: Recovery, Utilization, and

Environmental Effects
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Combustion Efficiency Impacts of Biofuels

a
A. Demirbas
a
Sila Science , Trabzon, Turkey
Published online: 02 Mar 2009.

To cite this article: A. Demirbas (2009) Combustion Efficiency Impacts of Biofuels, Energy Sources, Part A: Recovery,
Utilization, and Environmental Effects, 31:7, 602-609, DOI: 10.1080/15567030701743718

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 Energy Sources, Part A, 31:602–609, 2009
Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
ISSN: 1556-7036 print/1556-7230 online
DOI: 10.1080/15567030701743718

Combustion Efficiency Impacts of Biofuels

A. DEMIRBAS1
1
Sila Science, Trabzon, Turkey

Abstract The term biofuel is referred to as liquid fuels for the transport sector
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that are predominantly produced from biomass. Biofuels are important because they
replace petroleum fuels. There are many benefits for the environment, economy, and
consumers in using biofuels. The advantages of biofuels such as biodiesel, vegetable
oil, bioethanol, biomethanol, and biomass pyrolysis oil as engine fuel are liquid
nature-portability, ready availability, renewability, higher combustion efficiency, lower
sulfur and aromatic content, and biodegradability. The biggest difference between
biofuels and petroleum feedstocks is oxygen content. Biofuels have oxygen levels
from 10–45% while petroleum has essentially none making the chemical properties
of biofuels very different from petroleum. Oxygenates are just pre-used hydrocarbons
having structure that provide a reasonable antiknock value. Also, as they contain
oxygen, fuel combustion is more efficient, reducing hydrocarbons in exhaust gases.
The only disadvantage is that oxygenated fuel has less energy content.

Keywords biofuels, combustion, combustion efficiency, fuel chemistry

Introduction
Combustion is a basic chemical process that releases energy from a fuel and air mixture.
For combustion to occur, fuel, oxygen, and heat must be present together. The combustion
is the chemical reaction of a particular substance with oxygen. Combustion represents a
chemical reaction, during which from certain matters other simple matters are produced;
this is a combination of inflammable matter with oxygen of the air accompanied by
heat release. The quantity of heat evolved when one mole of a hydrocarbon is burned
to carbon dioxide and water is called the heat of combustion. Combustion to carbon
dioxide and water is characteristic of organic compounds; under special conditions it
is used to determine their carbon and hydrogen content (Demirbas, 2006a). During
combustion, the combustible part of fuel is subdivided into a volatile part and a solid
residue. During heating, it evaporates together with a part of carbon in the form of
hydrocarbons combustible gases and carbon monoxide release by thermal degradation
of the fuel. Carbon monoxide is mainly formed from the following reactions: (a) from
reduction of CO2 with unreacted C,

CO2 C C ! 2CO; (1)

Address correspondence to Professor Ayhan Demirbas, P. K. 216, Trabzon TR-61035, Turkey.

E-mail: ayhandemirbas@hotmail.com

602
 Combustion Efficiency Impacts of Biofuels 603

and (b) from degradation of carbonyl fragments (–CO) in the fuel molecules at 600–750 K
temperature.
The combustion process is started by heating the fuel above its ignition temperature
in the presence of oxygen or air. Under the influence of heat, the chemical bonds of the
fuel are cleaved. If complete combustion occurs, the combustible elements (C, H, and S)
react with the oxygen content of the air to form CO2 , H2 O, and mainly SO2 .
If not enough oxygen is present or the fuel and air mixture is insufficient, then the
burning gases are partially cooled below the ignition temperature and the combustion
process stays incomplete. The flue gases then still contain combustible components,
mainly carbon monoxide (CO), unburned carbon (C), and various hydrocarbons (Cx Hy ).
The standard measure of the energy content of a fuel is its heating value (HV),
sometimes called the calorific value or heat of combustion. In fact, there are multiple
values for the HV, depending on whether it measures the enthalpy of combustion .H /
or the internal energy of combustion .U /, and whether for a fuel containing hydrogen
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product water is accounted for in the vapor phase or the condensed (liquid) phase. With
water in the vapor phase, the lower heating value (LHV) at constant pressure measures the
enthalpy change due to combustion (Jenkins et al., 1998). The heating value is obtained by
the complete combustion of a unit quantity of solid fuel in an oxygen-bomb colorimeter
under carefully defined conditions. The gross heat of combustion or higher heating value
(GHC or HHV) is obtained by oxygen-bomb colorimeter method as the latent heat of
moisture in the combustion products is recovered.

Biofuels
The term biofuel is referred to as liquid fuels for the transport sector that are pre-
dominantly produced from biomass (Demirbas, 2007). The biofuels include bioethanol,
biobutanol, fatty acid (m)ethylesters (biodiesel), vegetable oils, biomethanol, pyrolysis
oils, fuels from Fischer–Tropsch synthesis, biogas, and biohydrogen (Demirbas, 2006b).
There are several reasons for biofuels to be considered as relevant technologies by both
developing and industrialized countries. They include energy security reasons, environ-
mental concerns, foreign exchange savings, and socioeconomic issues related to the rural
sector. Due to its environmental merits, the share of biofuel in the automotive fuel market
will grow fast in the next decade (Kim and Dale, 2005; Demirbas and Balat, 2006).
Advantages of biofuels are the following: (a) biofuels are easily available from common
biomass sources; (b) they represent a carbon dioxide-cycle in combustion; (c) biofuels
have a considerable environmentally friendly potential; (d) there are many benefits for the
environment, economy, and consumers in using biofuels; and (e) they are biodegradable
and contribute to sustainability (Puppan, 2002).
The biggest difference between biofuels and petroleum feedstocks is oxygen content.
Biofuels have oxygen levels from 10–45% while petroleum has essentially none making
the chemical properties of biofuels very different from petroleum. All have very low
sulfur levels and many have low nitrogen levels.
Among the liquid biofuels, biodiesel, which is derived from vegetable oils, is gaining
acceptance and a market share as diesel fuel in Europe and the United States. Biodiesel
has become more attractive recently because of its environmental benefits and the fact
that it is made from renewable resources (Demirbas, 2003a). Since the prices of edible
vegetable oils are higher than that of diesel fuel No. 2, waste vegetable oils and non-edible
crude vegetable oils take priority over the edible vegetable oils in biodiesel production
 604 A. Demirbas

(Usta et al., 2005). A comparison of the fuel properties of biodiesel and No. 2 diesel
fuels are tabulated in Table 1. Biodiesel has 12% less energy than diesel, however it
provides 7% average increase in combustion efficiency.
In 2004, 3.4 billion gallons of fuel ethanol were produced from over 10% of the
corn crop. Ethanol demand is expected to more than double in the next ten years. For the
supply to be available to meet this demand, new technologies must be moved from the
laboratories to commercial reality (Balat, 2009). The world ethanol production is about
60% from feedstock from sugar crops.
The Fischer–Tropsch Synthesis (FTS) produces hydrocarbons of different length
from a gas mixture of H2 and CO (bio-syngas) from biomass gasification. The FTS
process is a process capable of producing liquid hydrocarbon fuels from bio-syngas. The
large hydrocarbons can be hydro-cracked to form mainly diesel of excellent quality. The
products from FTS are mainly aliphatic straight-chain hydrocarbons (Cx Hy ). Besides the
Cx Hy also branched hydrocarbons, unsaturated hydrocarbons, and primary alcohols are
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formed in minor quantities (Dry, 1984; Anderson, 1984; Bukur et al., 1995; Schulz, 1999;
Tijmensen et al., 2002).
Pyrolysis/cracking, defined as the cleavage to smaller molecules by thermal energy,
of vegetable oils over petroleum catalysts has been investigated (Madras et al., 2004).
Because of the possibility of production in a wide variety of products by the high
temperature pyrolysis reactions, many investigators have studied the pyrolysis of plant
oils to obtain products (liquid, gas, and solid) suitable for fuel under different reaction
conditions with and without catalyst (Dykstra et al., 1988; Adjaye et al., 1996; Dandik
and Aksoy, 1998; Bhatia et al., 1999; Lima et al., 2003; Bhatia et al., 2003).
The pyrolysis oil (bio-oil) from wood is typically a liquid, almost black through dark
red-brown. The density of the liquid is about 1,200 kg/m3 , which is higher than that of
fuel oil and significantly higher than that of the original biomass. The bio-oils have water
contents of typically 14–33 wt%, which cannot be removed by conventional methods like
distillation. Phase separation may occur above certain water contents. The higher heating
value (HHV) is below 27 MJ/kg (compared to 43–46 MJ/kg for conventional fuel oils).
In wood-derived pyrolysis oil, specific oxygenated compounds are present in relatively

Table 1
Comparing of fuel properties of biodiesel and No. 2 diesel fuels

Property Biodiesel No. 2 diesel

Specific gravity, kg/L 0.87–0.89 0.84–0.86

Cetane number 46–70 47–55
Cloud point, K 262–289 256–265
Pour point, K 258–286 237–243
Flash point, K 408–423 325–350
Sulfur, wt% 0.0000–0.0024 0.04–0.01
Ash, wt% 0.002–0.01 0.06–0.01
Iodine number 60–135 —
Kinematic viscosity, at 313 K 3.7–5.8 1.9–3.8
Higher heating value, MJ/kg 39.3–39.8 45.3–46.7
Sources: Demirbas, 2003b; Balat, 2005.
 Combustion Efficiency Impacts of Biofuels 605

large amounts (Rowell and Hokanson, 1979; Phillips et al., 1990; Mohan et al., 2006). A
current comprehensive review focuses on the recent developments in the wood/biomass
pyrolysis and reports the characteristics of the resulting bio-oils, which are the main
products of fast wood pyrolysis (Mohan et al., 2006). Sufficient hydrogen added to the
synthesis gas to convert all of the biomass carbon into methanol carbon would more than
double the methanol produced from the same biomass base (Phillips et al., 1990).

Combustion Efficiency
In general, combustion efficiency as defined in flue gas analysis standards is simply
reduced by the stack loss. Combustion efficiency is based on the flue gas temperature
and inlet air temperature.
Combustion efficiency calculations assume complete fuel combustion and are based
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on the three following factors: (1) the chemistry of the fuel; (2) the net temperature of
the stack gases; and (3) the percentage of oxygen or CO2 by volume after combustion.
Combustion efficiency relates to the part of the reactants that combine chemically.
Combustion efficiency increases with increasing temperature of the reactants, increasing
time that the reactants are in contact, increasing vapor pressures, increasing surface areas,
and increasing stored chemical energy.
Figure 1 shows a typical diagram for combustion efficiency. Without enough com-
bustion air, the combustion efficiency is low. The combustion efficiency increases with
fuel/air ratio. The combustion efficiency is lower than the maximum value in the sto-
chiometric fuel/air mixture. Figure 2 shows the typical combustion efficiency vs. excess
of air for natural gas.
Table 2 shows the characteristic combustion processes and their combustion effi-
ciency ranges. Efficiencies of fuel cells (40–85%) are considerably high compared to
heat engines (Chaurasia et al., 2003; Hu et al., 2004). Hydrogen gas has potential if
used in an electricity-generating fuel cell. Fuel cells have no moving parts, produce only
clean water as emissions, and are around 70% efficient (compared with the highest IC
engine efficiencies of only around 45%). Water (H2 O) is a prime source of renewable
hydrogen.

Figure 1. A typical diagram for combustion efficiency.

 606 A. Demirbas
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Figure 2. Typical combustion efficiency values vs. excess of air for natural gas.

Combustion Efficiencies of Biofuels

Ethanol is an oxygenated liquid fuel and its combustion heat is considerably lower than
those of petroleum-based fuels. Its characteristics as a transportation fuel can be attributed
to its chemical composition. The oxygen provides more efficient combustion and cleaner
emissions. At a stoichiometric air/fuel ratio of 9:1 in comparison with gasoline’s 14.7:1,
it is obvious that more ethanol is required to produce the chemically correct products of
CO2 and water. Ethanol has a higher octane number (108), broader flammability limits,
higher flame speeds, and higher heats of vaporization than gasoline. These properties
allow for a higher compression ratio, shorter burn time, and leaner burn engine, which
lead to theoretical efficiency advantages over gasoline in an internal combustion engine.
The octane number of ethanol allows it to sustain significantly higher internal pressures
than gasoline, before being subjected to pre-detonation. Disadvantages of ethanol include

Table 2
Characteristic combustion processes and their combustion efficiency ranges

Combustion efficiency
Type of combustion process range, %

Home fireplace 10–30

Space heater 50–80
Phosphoric acid fuel cell at 425–475 K operating temp. 40–80
Alkali fuel cell at 425–475 K operating temp. 60–70
Molten carbonate fuel cell at 925 K operating temp. 60–80
Induced draft furnace 74–80
Commercial gas boiler 70–82
Oil burner heating system 73–85
Boiler with gas burner 75–85
Condensing furnace 85–93
 Combustion Efficiency Impacts of Biofuels 607

Table 3
Some technical properties of fuels

Fuel property Gasoline Diesel no. 2 Isoctane Methanol Ethanol

Cetane number — 50 — 5 8
Octane number 96 — 100 114 108
Auto-ignition temperature (K) 644 588 530 737 606
Lower heating value (MJ/Kg) 44.0 42.6 45.0 19.9 26.7

its lower energy density than gasoline, its corrosiveness, low flame luminosity, lower
vapor pressure, miscibility with water, and toxicity to ecosystems.
Methyl alcohol has the lowest combustion energy of all the engine fuels. However,
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it also has the lowest stoichiometric or chemically correct air-fuel ratio. Therefore, an
engine burning methyl alcohol would produce the most power. It also is possible to
take advantage of the higher octane number of methyl (114) alcohol and increase the
engine compression ratio. This would increase the efficiency of converting the potential
combustion energy to power. Finally, alcohols burn more completely, thus increasing
combustion efficiency.
Biofuels, except biohydrogen, are oxygenated compounds. Oxygenates are just pre-
used hydrocarbons having structure that provides a reasonable antiknock value. Also, as
they contain oxygen, fuel combustion is more efficient, reducing hydrocarbons in exhaust
gases. The only disadvantage is that oxygenated fuel has less energy content. For the
same efficiency and power output, more fuel has to be burned. Table 3 shows some
technical properties of fuels.
The advantages of biofuels such as biodiesel, vegetable oil, bioethanol, biomethanol,
biomass pyrolysis oil as engine fuel are liquid nature-portability, ready availability, re-
newability, higher combustion efficiency, lower sulfur and aromatic content, and biodegrad-
ability. Full combustion of a fuel requires in existence the amount of stochiometric
oxygen. However, the amount of stochiometric oxygen generally is not enough for full
combustion due to not oxygenating the fuel. Structural oxygen content of fuel increases
combustion efficiency of the fuel due to increasing the homogeneity of oxygen with the
fuel during combustion. Because of this the combustion efficiency and cetane numbers
of vegetable oils and biodiesels are higher than diesel fuel as well as the combustion
efficiency methanol/ethanol is higher than that of gasoline. Cetane number measures the
readiness of a fuel to auto-ignite.

Conclusion
In general, combustion efficiency as defined in flue gas analysis standards is simply
reduced by the stack loss. The combustion efficiency is highly different from the thermal
efficiency of a fueled internal combustion engine.
Biofuels, except biohydrogen, are oxygenated compounds. Oxygenated structure
would increase the efficiency of converting the potential combustion energy to power.
Finally, biofuels burn more completely, thus increasing combustion efficiency.
The combustion efficiency is important for evaluation of fuel properties effects on
advanced combustion processes, and evaluation of fuel chemistry to enable high efficiency
engine operation to obtain reasonable emission standards.
 608 A. Demirbas

It is concluded that combustion efficiency is considerably dependent on fuel chem-

istry, but is strongly influenced by the physical fuel properties that govern atomization
quality and spray evaporation rates.

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