Conversion of Waste Plastics into Hydrocarbon Fuel - Analysis of Combustion Behavior and Emission Characteristics of Waste Plastics Derived Fuel Blended with Diesel in an IC Engine: A Sustainable Approach for Waste Plastic Recycling

Abstract

Plastics Waste has become a severe environmental challenge in the world. Currently practicing techniques like open dumping, land filling, incineration for plastic waste recycling are haphazardous, and causing significant negative impacts on the environment and human health. Waste plastics can be converted into hydrocarbon fuel by the thermal pyrolysis technique which was investigated in this study. Thermal pyrolysis technique is employed in a semi-batch type reactor to extract hydrocarbon fuels from the segregated waste plastics from the municipal waste. A maximum conversion rate of 99% is achieved at the operating temperature of 450 C and near atmospheric pressure. The properties of the liquid fuel extracted are close to commercial diesel. The combustion behaviour and emission characteristics of the extracted fuel blended with diesel percentage by volume 10% - 60% used in a compression ignition (CI) internal combustion (IC) engine are investigated. The brake specified fuel consumption (BSFC), break power (BP) and break thermal efficiency (BTE) of the engine were obtained for different fuel blends at various engine loads. The BSFC shows enhancement at all loads. Break power and break thermal efficiency were observed to be similar to that obtained with diesel. CO emission is higher than that of diesel and CO2, NO and NOx emissions were found to be similar to that of diesel. The net energy returned of the waste plastics to fuel conversion process was found to be 16,521 kJ/kg of the waste plastics and the developed reactor system is a sustainable approach for the waste plastic recycling.