Investigation on the use of plastic pyrolysis oil as alternate fuel in a direct injection diesel engine with titanium oxide nanoadditive

The challenges in handling of waste plastics, shortage and price rise of petro fuels may be dealt by producing fuel from waste plastics. A trial has been attempted here to assess the change in properties of PPO (plastic pyrolysis oil) by blending with TiO₂ nanoparticles and also to assess the power output and emission behaviour of a mono cylinder CI engine operating on PPO added with the above mentioned additive. Initially, the PPO was produced from the discarded waste plastics through the pyrolysis process by thermal cracking. Later, the nanoparticles were dispersed on mass fraction into the PPO using a binding agent with a homogenizer and ultrasonicator. Measurements were done to bring out the change in physiochemical properties of TiO₂-added PPO. Tests were conducted on a diesel engine using diesel, PPO, PPO + 25 ppm T_iO₂, PPO + 50 ppm T_iO₂, PPO + 75 ppm T_iO₂ and PPO + 100 ppm T_iO₂ fuel samples. The output reveals that the brake thermal efficiency (BTE) of PPO with 50 ppm T_iO₂ sample combination increased by 2.1% when compared to neat PPO at maximum load situation. The CO, HC and smoke pollutants dropped considerably due to the blending of 50 ppm T_iO₂ to PPO when compared to the other fuel combinations.