Fuels and Combustion
ASHRAE Technical Committee 6.10

The ASHRAE Handbook is published in a series of four volumes, one of which is revised each year, ensuring that no volume is older than four years.

HVAC Systems and Equipment: Automatic Fuel Burning
Fuel-burning systems provide a means to mix fuel and air in the proper ratio, ignite it, control the position of the flame envelope within the combustion chamber, and control a fuel flow rate for safe combustion-heat energy release for space conditioning, water heating, and other processes. This chapter covers the design and use of automatic fuel-burning systems. The fuel can be gaseous(e.g., natural or liquefied petroleum gas), liquid (primarily the lighter grades of fuel oil or biodiesel), or solid (e.g., coal, or renewable items such as wood or corn). For discussion of some of these fuels, their combustion chemistry, and thermodynamics, see Chapter 28 of the 2009 ASHRAE Handbook—Fundamentals.      

HVAC Systems and Equipment: Chimneys
A properly designed chimney or vent system provides and controls draft to convey flue gas from an appliance to the out-doors. This chapter describes the design of chimneys and vent systems that discharge flue gas from appliances and fireplace systems.

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Fundamentals: Combustion & Fuels
Combustion is a chemical reaction in which an oxidant reacts rapidly with a fuel to liberate stored energy as thermal energy, generally in the form of high-temperature gases. Small amounts of electromagnetic energy (light), electric energy (free ions and electrons), and mechanical energy (noise) are also produced during combustion. Except in special applications, the oxidant for combustion is oxygen in the air. The oxidation normally occurs with the fuel in vapor form. One notable exception is oxidation of solid car-bon, which occurs directly with the solid phase.

The ASHRAE HVAC FUNDAMENTALS HANDBOOK may be purchased from the on-line bookstore by clicking the highlighted text.

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Technical committees develop and sponsor technical sessions at the winter and annual conferences. Information about their future technical program is discussed at each TC meeting and at the TC’s Program Subcommittee meeting

ASHRAE publishes papers and transactions from presentations at its conference events. In addition, ASHRAE records most of the seminar sessions from its conferences on DVD. These DVDs are ideal for use at chapter meetings, in university courses, or company lunch and learns. Products available from the most recent conference may be found here.

Technical Committees are responsible for identifying research topics, proposing research projects, selecting bidders, and monitoring research projects funded by ASHRAE. Information about their specific research program is discussed at each TC meeting and at the TC’s Research Subcommittee meeting.

TC 6.10 has developed and provided oversight for relevant research projects including impacts of sulfur on heating fuels and the high altitude derating of gas-fired furnaces.

ASHRAE writes standards for the purpose of establishing consensus for: 1) methods of test for use in commerce and 2) performance criteria for use as facilitators with which to guide the industry. ASHRAE publishes the following three types of voluntary consensus standards: Method of Measurement or Test (MOT), Standard Design and Standard Practice. ASHRAE does not write rating standards unless a suitable rating standard will not otherwise be available. ASHRAE is accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and follows ANSI's requirements for due process and standards development. Standards may be purchased at the ASHRAE Bookstore.

ASHRAE Technical FAQs are provided as a service to ASHRAE members, users of ASHRAE publications, and the general public. While every effort has been made to ensure their accuracy and reliability, they are advisory and provided for informational purposes only, and in many cases represent only one person’s view. They are not intended and should not be relied on as an official statement of ASHRAE. Technical questions not addressed may be submitted to the ASHRAE Technical Services department at tse@ashrae.net.