Conditions in which combustion occurs

Combustion doesn't always result in fire, but when it does, a flame is a characteristic indicator of the reaction. While the activation energy must be overcome to initiate combustion i. It's important to remember that combustion reactions are easy to recognize because the products always contain carbon dioxide and water.

Here are several examples of balanced equations for combustion reactions. Note that while oxygen gas is always present as a reactant, in the trickier examples, the oxygen comes from another reactant. It's prone to limiting reactants the same as other processes. As a result, there are two types of combustion you're likely to encounter:.

Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Use precise geolocation data. Select personalised content. Create a personalised content profile. Measure ad performance. Select basic ads. Create a personalised ads profile. Select personalised ads. Apply market research to generate audience insights. Fuels such as natural gas and petrol contain hydrocarbons. These are compounds of hydrogen and carbon only.

When they burn completely:. In general, for complete combustion:. Here are the equations for the complete combustion of propane , used in bottled gas:.

Incomplete combustion occurs when the supply of air or oxygen is poor. However, it should be noted that, practically speaking, according to the ChemWiki page Burning Alkanes , the size of the hydrocarbon has an affect in 'normal' conditions: Provided the combustion is complete, all the hydrocarbons will burn with a blue flame.

The reason being according to ChemWiki is: If the liquid is not very volatile, only those molecules on the surface can react with the oxygen. Improve this answer. Take the tour to get familiar with this site.

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