Experimental investigation of performance and emission characteristics of DI diesel engine fueled with polymer waste dissolved in biodiesel-blended diesel fuel

摘要

Energy recovery has been found to be a promising approach for disposal of polymer waste such as expanded polystyrene (EPS) which entraps large volume of air. Biodiesel known as an advantageous alternative fuel possesses bio-solvent attributes and is feasible to be used for energy recovery from EPS. In this study, maximum EPS dissolution value in biodiesel was calculated and a homogenous fuel composition was achieved. At the second phase, several biodiesel-diesel blends (B5) containing various percentages of EPS were tested in a DI diesel engine. Statistical analyses showed that addition of a limited amount of EPS led to a significant emission reduction, NO_x in particular, while engine performance criteria remained stable. It was found that B5 blend containing 50 g EPS/L biodiesel was found highly advantageous on both level of performance and emissions. Despite a 3.6% reduction in brake power, a significant decrease in brake specific fuel consumption (8.5%) and increase in brake thermal efficiency (9.8%) were observed at maximum rated power and speed operation condition of the engine when the new fuel was injected. Furthermore, sustainable reductions of CO, CO_2, NO_x, and soot as the major exhaust emissions were achieved.