Experimental Investigation of Plastic Pyrolysis Oil in DI Diesel Engine to Analyze Performance and Emission Characteristics

Disposal of non-biodegradable plastic waste is one of the major hindrances for many countries. The research works in area of plastic waste management expands almost like every day. The conversion of waste to energy recovery is one of the promising techniques found to manage the waste plastic. Waste plastics have the dominating factor for fuel production since they have good heat of combustion and also their growing availability. The present work examines the potential of using blends of plastic oil (PO) with diesel in a direct injection diesel engine. The plastic oil is synthesized through pyrolysis process from mixed plastic waste, which has got more potential for scalable implementations. The present work includes the production of PO, characterization of the produced PO, performance and emission testing in a single cylinder four stroke VCR multi fuel engine. The engine is fueled with blends of plastic oil with diesel. Four blends of plastic oil with diesel (5% PO, 10% PO, 15% PO and 20% PO) are prepared on a volumetric basis. The test results show that brake thermal efficiency of blends is lower compared to diesel. Yet 10% PO shows similar performance to that of diesel fueled operation. The regulated emissions are reduced considerably when compared to Diesel fueling. Among all the test compositions, 10% PO shows better emission characteristics. 10% PO shows lower unburned hydrocarbon, CO, CO₂ and smoke compared to other test fuels.