Waste to energy conversion: Pyrolytic oil and biodiesel as a renewable fuel blends on diesel engine combustion, performance, and emissions

ABSTRACT

The use of pyrolytic oil (WTPO) obtained from waste vehicle tires in Turkey is evaluated and encouraged within the scope of YEKDEM (Turkey Renewable Energy Resources Support Mechanism). In order to benefit from this incentive, WTPO must be used as the main fuel in diesel engines. For this reason, in this study, unlike all other studies in the literature, the use of WTPO at a high rate was examined. The effects of biodiesel and WTPO mixtures containing high WTPO on engine performance and emissions were investigated. The experiments were carried out at 2800 rpm engine speed, where the maximum power was obtained, and at 4 different loads as 100%, 75%, 50%, and 25%. When the obtained results are examined. The lowest brake thermal efficiency (BTE) value was obtained in P100 fuel at 25% load and its value was 16.21%. Brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) data were similar for all test fuels under the same load conditions. Based on the heat release rate and in-cylinder pressure data, it was noted that biodiesel reduced the ignition delay time. The maximum in-cylinder temperature was 1723.4 K and the maximum exhaust temperature was 590°C with the use of P60B40 fuel. The lowest nitrogen oxides (NOx) value results were obtained at 100% load. Hydrocarbon (HC) emissions decreased from 1.13 g/kWh to 0.13 g/kWh for P100 fuel as load increased form 25% to 100%. All these results show that although the biodiesel additive slightly worsened the emissions, positive results were obtained for the performance data.

KEYWORDS:

• Waste tire pyrolysis
• tire pyrolytic oil
• biodiesel
• alternative fuels
• diesel performance
• emissions

Acknowledgments

The content of the study was compiled from the first author’s PhD dissertation. Moreover, this work has been supported by Yildiz Technical University Scientific Research Projects Coordination Unit under project number FBA-2021-4287. The authors wish to express their appreciation to Era Environmental Technologies Inc., especially to General Manager Cengiz ESMEN and Eng. Serkan ARSLAN, for their kind help and contributions in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Nomenclature

BSFC Break-specific fuel consumption

BTE Break thermal efficiency

BTDC Before top dead center

CA Crank angle

CaO Calcium oxide

CO₂Carbon dioxide

CO Carbon monoxide

HC Hydrocarbon

H₂SO₄Sulfuric acid

IMEP Indicated mean effective pressure

Kw Kilowatt

NOx Nitrogen oxides

PM Particulate matter

PPO Plastics pyrolysis oil

P100 100% pyrolysis oil

P90B10 90% pyrolysis oil-10% biodiesel

P80B20 80% pyrolysis oil-20% biodiesel

P70B30 70% Pyrolysis oil and 30% biodiesel

P60B40 60% pyrolysis oil-40% biodiesel

rpm Revolution per minute

SOC Start of combustion

SOI Start of ignition

TDC Top dead center

WTPO Waste tire pyrolysis oil