Waste plastic oil and biofuel blend to reduce diesel emissions

Researchers were able to reduce diesel emissions by blending the fuel with sustainable additives. The mixture, which includes ethanol biofuel and oil from plastic waste, emits less cancer-causing noxious gases, yet still performs as well as conventional diesel.

Conventional diesel is a fossil fuel made from non-renewable crude oil, which is the leading cause of greenhouse gas emissions. Diesel engines are more efficient than gasoline engines but they emit high amounts of nitrous oxide gas and other dangerous chemicals that cause human illness and environmental damage.

This study set out to investigate how sustainable fuel alternatives and additives can be used to reduce diesel emissions. The study proposed using ethanol biofuel that can be made from discarded biomass such as wood and used cooking oil, in addition to oil made from recycled plastic.

These fuel alternatives are not as good as diesel on their own, and special engines have to be developed to use them, but this study aimed to use them to reduce conventional diesel emissions and to use the fuel blend in normal diesel engines.

The researchers blended conventional diesel (CD) with ethanol fuel (E), as well as oil made with waste plastic. They added a commercially-available chemical called a “cetane improver”, which is used to improve the quality of diesel to allow an engine to burn more of it and reduce emissions.

The researchers used a single cylinder diesel engine in a laboratory where they tested engine performance against each of the different fuel blends. They also compared performance to conventional diesel alone.

The researchers were able to blend ethanol and oil from waste plastic with conventional diesel in a way that reduced emissions without compromising on performance. A blend of 90% diesel: 5% waste plastic oil: 5% ethanol had the lowest emissions, while performing as well as conventional diesel in efficiency.

They also found that using a blend of these alternative fuels with conventional diesel does not increase exhaust gas temperatures, meaning that engine health is not negatively affected.

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Abstract

Alternative fuels available at low cost, friendly to natural environments and meet the energy needs and demands, have witnessed a growing demand and use today. Ethanol is an attractive renewable energy source with a high content of oxygen. Ethanol can be produced through ethanolysis, however for this work direct blending of conventional diesel, waste plastic pyrolysis oil and ethanol with commercial fuel improver CI-0808 purchased from Innospec company was attempted. The primary purpose of adding a cetane improver was to improve the combustion characteristics of the blends by at least 1- 3 ignition quality points. Five mixing ratios were chosen in the following order, 50:25:25, 60: 20:20, 70: 15:15, 80: 10:10 and 90: 5:5 for Waste Plastic Pyrolysis Oil (WPPO), ethanol and conventional diesel (CD) respectively. However, for the fuel additive mixing ratio the total volume percentage was considered and the ratio put at 0.01% of the total quantity of blended fuel. In this work WPPO, diesel blends and fuel additives improvers were used as alternative fuel. This was to evaluate their performance and emission characteristics in a stationary single cylinder water cooled experimental diesel engine. The CI-0808 was added due to its potential power to reduce emissions of CO, UHC, NOX, PM and improved engine performance. The results obtained were compared carefully to ASTM standards and discussed using graph curves figures and tabulated values. The conclusion was that ethanol and WPPO blends can be used in diesel engines as alternative fuel without modification. Used in combination with cetane improvers the emissions reduce significantly and performance improved equalling that of conventional diesel fuel.

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