Question

For 1 mole of an arbitrary alcohol (meaning it has oxygen bound in the fuel) such as CXHYOZ, and assuming complete combustion, find the number of moles of air required to burn 1 mol of fuel as a function of x, y, and z. Don’t forget to include the factor of 4.76 in the moles of air. Comment on how this compares with the moles of air required to burn a hydrocarbon fuel CXHY.

Answer 1

On the combustion of arbitary alcohol, the carbon present in the alcohol will be converted into carbon dioxide and the hydrogen present in the alcohol will be converted into water

Hence in order to balance the oxyge, there are (2x+y/2) moles of O2 for 1 mole of fuel, hence in order to have balanced number of oxygen atoms, the coefficient of O2 will be

Now in order to solve for the hydrocarbon CxHy

Hence in the previous equation it was (x+y/4-z/2) and in this equation it changes to (x+y/4)