Fuel Engineering
Introduction
Dr. Muhammad Sajid
Assistant Professor
School of Chemical & Materials Engineering,
National University of Sciences and Technology, Islamabad Pakistan
DAE Chem. Tech Postdoc Energy Storage Materials
2003 MSc. Chem. Eng. 2012 2023 – 2025
Gold Medal ICET PU Lhr Northeast Normal University, China
2008 2017–2020
2003 2012 2023–2025
BSc Chem. Eng. 2008 PhD Chem. Eng. 2017 - 2020
ICET, PU Lhr
Tsinghua University, Beijing China
EDUCATION
Dr. Muhammad Sajid, SCME, NUST, Islamabad 9/25/2025 2
Experience
2009 – 2013 2018 – 2020 2020 – 2023
Process 2014 – 2017 Research Assistant 2025 – Cont.
Engineer Lecturer- associate Professor Assistant
Agri tech Chemical Eng. Tsinghua Yibin Professor
limited (Pak- UOG university, University, SCME, NUST
American) Beijing, China China
Office location: Office 324, SCME Old Building
Visiting hours: 1500 – 1600 hrs
Lab: Heterogeneous catalysis 311
Personal
Information Email:
[email protected] [email protected]
Research Domain: Catalysis, Biochemicals and biomaterials,
energy storage materials, organic materials
Google scholar:
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Fuel engineering
CHE- 423
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Fuel technology refers to the identification and characterization of
various kinds of fossil and renewable fuels. It is inevitable for
chemical engineers to learn testing and usage of fuels with a focus
on key concepts related to fuel specifications, performance,
additives, and fuel storage and distribution. With recent trends
COURSE towards environmentally friendly ultra-clean fuels, fuel
specification and characterization have attained a reasonable level
DESCRIPTION of sophistication that will be fully covered in this course. Chemical
engineers need to have a basic understanding to specify different
behaviours of fuels, for their effective utilization. This course is
intended to instruct students on key concepts related to all types
of conventional fuels, testing techniques, recent advances in
renewable, green and synfuels and their different conversion
methodologies. The course will find wide stream applications for
future chemical engineers in petroleum refineries and oil and gas
development and marketing companies.
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Course contents
• Section 1
• Introduction to types of fossil fuels; gaseous fuels, crude oil, refinery fuels, solid fuels (wood,
coal & coke), vegetable oils, essential & lubricant oils.
• Natural gas, shale gas extraction and LNG production
• Industrial manufacture of fuels, their safe storage and uses
• Petroleum, its composition and the distillation products
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Section 2
• Routine laboratory tests for fuels; colour of fuels & Saybolt chromometer
• American Petroleum Institute (API) scale & Specific gravity; use of hydrometers
• PONA (paraffin-olefin-naphthene-aromatics) Analysis
• Concept of crude oil assays; evaluation of oil stocks & distillation-based testing techniques of crude oil (true boiling point and
microdistillation); initial boiling point (IBP) & final boiling point (FBP) or end point
• Viscosity testing; types of viscometers
• Knocking characteristics of various fuels; performance numbers; difference between research octane number (RON) and motor
octane number (MON); cetane number & cetane index
• Types of sulphur present in fuels; tests for different types of sulphur
• Tests for Bituminous and semisolid materials; Softening Point & Penetration Test
• Conceptualization of testing Flash point, fire point, smoke point, cloud point, pour point, aniline point, kindling (auto-ignition)
point, cold filter plugging point (CFPP) & reid vapor pressure (RVP)
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Existent gum in fuels, oxidation stability and various corrosion tests of
fuels
Weathering test for LPG
Types of Flash point apparatus; Abel, Cleveland & Pensky’s Marten’s
Closed Cup (PMCC) Apparatus
Higher & Lower Heating Values of Fuel
Calorimetry for fuels; types of calorimeters; bomb calorimeter & heat
balance calorimeters.
Total Base Number (TBN) & Total Acid Number (TAN) Analysis
Concept of Euro Specifications of gasoline and high-speed diesel (HSD)
Characterization techniques for solid fuels; ultimate and proximate
analysis
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Transition from fossil fuels to renewable and green fuels; biomass,
municipal solid waste (MSW), waste from hospital, nuclear, tyre &
plastic waste.
Examine the various renewable pathways like gasification, pyrolysis
and anaerobic digestion; production of biofuels from biomass
Section 3 Concept of polygeneration, steam-waste ratio, equivalence ratio and
cold gas efficiency.
Introduction to synfuels; fischer-tropsch conversion, methanol to
gasoline conversion and direct coal liquefaction
Ethanol blended fuels; their pros and cons
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ASSESMENT SYSTEM:
• THEORETICAL/INSTRUCTION
• MINI PROJECT 10%
• QUIZZES 10%
• ASSIGNMENTS/HOMEWORK 10%
• MID TERM EXAM 30%
• END SEMESTER EXAM 40%
• TOTAL 100%
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Fuels, Furnaces and Refractories by
OP Gupta, 6th edition, 2014
TEXTBOOKS
“Fuels and Fuel Technology” by
Wilfrid Francis, Martin C. Peters, 2nd
Ed. 1980. Pergamon Press.
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Ref. books
Turns, S R. “An Introduction to Combustion” 2nd Edition
McGraw Hill. 2000.
Griffiths, J.F. & Barnard, J.A. “Flame and Combustion”, 3rd
Edition, Blackie Academic & Professional. 1995.
Harked J.H., Backhurst J.R. “Fuel and Energy” , 1981,
Academic Press”
Probstein, “Synthetic Fuels”, McGraw Hill.
Marion Smith, “Fuels and Combustion”, McGraw Hill.
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Fuel and its classification
▪ Any material (oil, gas, coal etc.) that produce heat or power (by
burning) is called “Fuel”.
(All are Fossil Fuels)
Coal
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Available Energy Sources and
Consumptions (Worldwide)
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Electricity generation in Pakistan
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Sectoral Share in Electricity Consumption
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Import of Petroleum Products
MS = Motor spirit
HSD = High speed diesel
FO = Furnace oil
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Selection Criteria of a Fuel
Specific applications Calorific value (heating value) of The type of process whether a The availability and reliability of
the Fuel continuous or intermittent the supply of fuels.
(irregular) operation is involved.
The price of the fuel delivered to The efficiency of the heating Impurities related to the fuel
the place where it is required, as operation with selected fuels. operation e.g., low-rank coal
some fuels need storage and produce NOx and SOx by burning
feeding equipment.
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Basic definition
Heating values,
Proximate analysis,
and Analysis
Ultimate analysis,
Density,
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related to Fuel
Ignition temperature,
Flash point,
Pour point,
Cloud point
Dr. Muhammad Sajid, SCME, NUST, Islamabad 9/25/2025
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Heating value:
• The heat produced by a fuel (per unit of lb, kg, g) for its complete combustion
Gross Heating Value:
• The gross calorific value (GCV), or high heat value (HHV), measures the total
(maximum) amount of heat that is produced by combustion. However, part of this
heat will be locked up in the latent heat of evaporation of any water present in
the fuel before combustion (moisture) or generated in the combustion process.
Net Heating Value
• The lower heating value (LHV), also known as the net calorific value (NCV), is
defined as the amount of heat released by fully combusting a specified quantity
less the heat of vaporization of the water in the combustion product.
Dr. Muhammad Sajid, SCME, NUST, Islamabad 9/25/2025
Heating value of Different Fuels
Usually, gas fuel heating
values are represented in
MJ/Nm3 where N stands
for Normal temperature
and Pressure (NTP, I bar
and 0℃) or MJ/m3 at gas
conditions (any temp and
pressure other than NTP)
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Fuel Analysis
Proximate analysis of a fuel provides includes the moisture
content, the volatile materials content, fixed carbon (or chars)
content, and ash content of a fuel.
Ultimate analysis of a fuel is quantitative determination of elements
present in the fuel. It generally, include Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen,
Sulfur, and Nitrogen, etc.
It is useful in determining the quantity of air required for com-
bustion and the volume and composition of the combustion gases.
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Other definitions related to Fuel
▪ Ignition temperature
• Minimum temperature at which the fuel ignites (catch fire or
combusted) in an oxidizing environment.
▪ Flash Point
• Lowest temperature at which a chemical can vaporize to form
an ignitable mixture in air.
A lower flash point indicates higher flammability. At the
flash point, the vapor may cease to burn when the ignition
source is removed
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Example of Flash and Ignition temperature
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Other definitions related to Fuel
▪ Pouring point
• The lowest temperature at which an oil can pour or flow. It is
important to use liquid fuel during cold water and at high
altitude.
▪ Flue gas: Gaseous product of a combustion of fuel
▪ Fuel gas: All gaseous fuels that burn and produce flue gas like CH4
burns produce CO etc.
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Other definitions related to Fuel
▪ Dry basis: To eliminate the effect of moisture on reporting data and
can be written as “dry”.
▪ Dry-ash free basis (e.g. coal): Eliminating the effect of moisture and
ash by reporting the data as dry-free ash. Good for comparing coal
samples with low ash and moisture content.
▪ As received basis: These basis are used whatever received by the
users directly from the market or from the site. The reporting data
includes all constituents of the fuel (organic, inorganic, volatiles, total
carbon etc.)
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Any Question
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