Waste to energy: Production of waste tire pyrolysis oil and comprehensive analysis of its usability in diesel engines

In the present paper, the waste vehicle tire chips were pyrolyzed to be achieved their liquid oil forms and then they were blended at different percentages (0%, 10%, 30% and 50% by volume) into neat diesel fuel (DF). Tests were conducted on a single-cylinder diesel engine at four different engine loads (3, 6, 9 and 12 Nm) under a constant engine speed of 2000 rpm. Then the performance (BSFC, BTE), combustion, emission (CO, NOx, and HC), vibration and noise characteristics to observe the influence of the addition of waste tire pyrolysis liquids (TPL) within diesel fuel were investigated experimentally. Since the heating value of TPL was lower than that of diesel fuel, BSFC gradually increased and BTE reduced with increase in TPL content of the TPL-diesel blend at all engine loads. On the other hand, it is seen that the ignition delay of the TPL-diesel blends is longer than that of DF owing to the low cetane number of TPL. The peak points of the maximum heat release rate (HRRmax) and maximum in-cylinder pressure (CPmax) were, therefore, higher in TPL-diesel blends. Additionally, both higher HRR and CP triggered to increase both vibration and noise levels in these fuels. Besides, the carbon and oxygen content of TPL produced have partially close to neat diesel fuel but hydrogen content is higher in diesel fuel. That is why a significant variation on CO was not observed among test fuels. However, NOx emission slightly increased and HC emission highly and gradually reduced with increase in TPL content of the blends. In conclusion, this paper highlights that usage of TPL can alternatively be blended into diesel fuel (up to 50%) without any modifications and presented promising results for the solution to both the waste management and depleting fossil fuels.