2nd International Conference on Chemical, Ecology and Environmental Sciences (ICCEES'2012) Singapore April 28-29, 2012

The Evaluation of blend of Waste Plastic OilDiesel fuel for use as alternate fuel for transportation
Senthilkumar Tamilkolundu1. Chandrasekar Murugesan 2

Abstract The aim of this paper is present the preparation of blend of diesel with 5% volume proportion of waste plastic oil produced from the thermal pyrolysis. The quality of blending process is analyzed with FTIR spectrum. The viscosity and density of these blends were analysed in relation with regular diesel fuel. The feasibility of the waste plastic oils derived from PVC plastics as an alternate fuel for transportation is also checked by conducting performance test on a single cylinder Kirlosker diesel engine equipped with electrical loading at 50% of the engine maximum load i.e., at 3.7 kW. Total Fuel Consumption and Specific Fuel consumption is found to decrease while brake thermal efficiency is found to increase with the use of waste plastic oil/diesel blend. KeywordsAlternative fuel, Diesel, Pyrolysis, Waste plastic
I. INTRODUCTION

OR sustainable progress, mankind has to rely on the alternate/renewable energy sources like biomass, hydropower, geothermal energy, wind energy, solar energy, nuclear energy, etc by saving of fossil energy like crude oil, natural gas or coal. On the other hand, appropriate waste management strategy is another important aspect of sustainable development. Plastics have proved their reputation and have gained popularity as they are light in weight, does not rust or rot, low in cost, reusable and conserve natural resources. There are a numerous of ways that plastic is being used nowadays/will be used in the years to come. Hence plastics have become essential materials and their applications in the industrial field are continually increasing. At the same time, waste plastics have created a very serious environmental challenge because of their huge quantities and their disposal problems. Plastics are produced from petroleum derivatives and are composed primarily of hydrocarbons but also contain additives such as antioxidants, colorants, and other stabilizers. However, when plastic products are used and discarded, these additives are undesirable from an environmental point of view [1, 2]. Waste management concept, waste management system, biomass and bio-waste resources, waste classification, and waste management methods were reviewed by Demirbas [3]
Senthilkumar Tamilkoludu 1 is with the Anna University of Technology Tiruchirappalli ,Tiruchirappalli 620024 (corresponding author phone: +91 9443267846; fax: +91 0431 2407955; e-mail: kmtsenthil@gmail.com) Chandrasekar Murugesan2 is with the Anna University of Technology Tiruchirappalli ,Tiruchirappalli 620024 (e-mail: shekarpunchu@tau.edu.in).

Panda, et.al [4] described that production of liquid fuel from plastic waste would be a better alternative as the calorific value of the plastics is comparable to that of fuels, around 40 MJ/kg. This option also reduces waste and conserves natural resources. It was also mentioned that mechanical recycling of plastic wastes is widely adopted method by different countries and the catalytic pyrolysis of plastic to fuel is gradually gaining momentum and being adopted in different countries recently due to its efficiency over other process in all respects. .Walendziewski [5] carried out two series of waste plastic cracking. The first series of polymer cracking experiments was carried out in a glass reactor at atmospheric pressure and in a temperature range 350-420C, the second one in autoclaves under hydrogen pressure (~3-5MPa) in temperature range 380-440C. They also concluded that the application of catalyst results in lowering of polymers cracking temperature, density of obtained liquid and increased the gas fuel yield. Siddiqui et al. [6] explored the effects of various conditions such as catalyst type, amount of catalyst, reaction time, pressure and temperature on the product distribution of co processing of waste plastic. The rate of conversion in the coprocessing system depended upon the chemistry and composition of the particular plastic material. The effect of four different catalysts on coprocessing reactions showed that the coprocessing of plastics with residue is affected by catalyst type. Ali et al. [7] reported that the high yields of liquid fuels in the boiling range 100480C and gases were obtained along with a small amount of heavy oils and insoluble material such as gums and coke. The results obtained on the coprocessing of polypropylene with coal and petroleum residues are very encouraging as this method appears to be quite feasible to convert plastic materials into liquefied coal products and to upgrade the petroleum residues and waste plastics. Miskolczi, et.al [8] investigated the pyrolysis of real waste plastics (high-density polyethylene and polypropylene) in a pilot scale horizontal tube reactor at 520 C temperature in the presence and absence of ZSM-5 catalyst. It was found that the yields of gases, gasoline and light oil could be increased in the presence of catalyst. They also concluded that the plastic wastes could be converted into gasoline and light oil with yields of 2048% and 1736% respectively depending on the used parameters.

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2nd International Conference on Chemical, Ecology and Environmental Sciences (ICCEES'2012) Singapore April 28-29, 2012

From the recent literature [9-11], it is evident that the process of converting waste plastic to reusable oil is a current research topic. Hence in this paper, preparation of blends of diesel with varying proportions of waste plastic oil produced from the thermal pyrolysis and the analysis of viscosity and density of these blends is presented. The feasibility of the waste plastic oils derived from PVC plastics as an alternate fuel for transportation is also checked by conducting performance test on a single cylinder Kirlosker diesel engine equipped with electrical loading at 50% of the engine maximum load i.e., at 3.7 kW. II. THERMAL PYROLYSIS In our experiments, commercially available shredded plastics were procured (Fig. 1) and washed before pyrolysis. One of the most favorable and effective disposing method is pyrolysis, which is environmental friendly and efficient way. Pyrolysis is the thermal degradation of solid wastes at high temperatures (300900C) in the absence of air (and oxygen). As the structure of products and their yields can be considerably modified by catalysts, results of pyrolysis in the absence of catalyst were presented in this article.

Pyrolysis of waste plastics was carried out in an indigenously designed and fabricated reactor. Fig. 2 and Fig. 3 shows the scheme of the process involved in the experiments and the photograph of the experimental set up respectively. Waste plastics had been procured form the commercial source and stored in a raw material storage unit. Raw material was then fed in the reactor and heated by means of electrical energy. Thermocouples were mounted on the inside wall of the reactor to monitor the temperature during the experiments. The yield commenced at a temperature of 350C. The gaseous products resulting from the pyrolysis of the plastic wastes is condensed in a water cooled condenser to liquid oil (Fig. 4) and collected for experiments

Fig. 3 Photograph of the Pyrolysis set up

Fig. 1 Procured shredded plastics

Fig. 4 Photograph of the plastic waste oil III. EXPERIMENTS The plastic oil is blended with diesel at a concentration level of 5% (B5) using ultrasonic vibration. During blending, plastic oil is adjusted to flow in drops from a flask arrangement placed directly above the beaker which placed in ultrasonic vibrator as shown in Fig. 5. The FTIR spectrum of waste plastic oil and its blend are given in Fig. 6-9 shows H-C stretching observed in the wavelength in the order of 4000400 cm-1. To check the feasibility of the waste plastic oils derived from PVC and PET bottle plastics as an alternate fuel for transportation, performance test is conducted on a single cylinder water cooled Kirlosker diesel engine equipped with
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Fig. 2 Schematic of the Pyrolysis set up

2nd International Conference on Chemical, Ecology and Environmental Sciences (ICCEES'2012) Singapore April 28-29, 2012

electrical loading at 50% of the engine maximum load i.e., at 3.7 kW. Four sets of experiments under identical test conditions were made to ensure the correctness of the observatiobns.

(a) Fig. 7 FTIR spectrum of PVC/Diesel oil blend Similarly Fig. 8 & Fig. 9 shows the FTIR spectrum of PET bottle plastics and PET/diesel blend, in which the H-C stretching is observed in the wavelength ranges of 3500, 1600 & 500 cm-1 for PET oil while 3000 and 1500 cm-1 for PVC/diesel oil. As the peaks in the spectrum remain unchanged, spectrum details indicate a good measure of the blending process.

(b) Fig. 5 Process of blending with ultrasonic vibrator IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Fig. 6 & Fig. 7 shows the FTIR spectrum of PVC and PVC/diesel blend, in which the H-C stretching is observed in the wavelength ranges of 3500, 1500 & 400 cm-1 for PVC oil while 3000 and 1500 cm-1 for PVC/diesel oil.

Fig. 8 FTIR spectrum of PET bottle oil

Fig. 6 FTIR spectrum of PVC oil

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2nd International Conference on Chemical, Ecology and Environmental Sciences (ICCEES'2012) Singapore April 28-29, 2012
12 10

Kinematic Viscosity mm2/s

8 6 4 2 0 20 25 30 35 40 45 Temperature C 50 55 60

y = 0.008x2 - 0.988x + 34.97 R = 0.989

Fig. 11 Variation of kinematic viscosity of B5 oil with temperature Fig. 9 FTIR spectrum of PET/Diesel oil blend The densities at various temperatures of the B5 sample were measured from knowledge of mass and volume calculations. The viscosity was measured using a Brookfield viscometer. The variation of density and viscosity of B5 fuel is shown in Fig. 10 and Fig. 11 respectively. A polynomial regression line is imposed in the data. As evident from the graph, a polynomial relationship is a good fit for the observed data. Compared to diesel, at same temperature, the values of density and viscosity of B5 fuel appears to be higher in the order of 27 % and 300% when compared with the diesel fuel. This can be attributed to the presence of contaminants and various other forms of liquid oil present in the yield obtained. Further investigation on these aspects is currently being undertaken in our research.
1200 1000 800

Density kg/m3

To check the feasibility of the waste plastic oils derived from PVC and PET bottle plastics as an alternate fuel for transportation, performance test is conducted on a single cylinder Kirlosker diesel engine equipped with electrical loading at 50% of the engine maximum load i.e., at 3.7 kW. The performances investigated are Total Fuel Consumption (TFC), Brake Power (BP), Specific Fuel Consumption (SFC) and Brake Thermal Efficiency (BT) shown in Figs. 12-14 for PVC/diesel oil blend. The test results show that the Total Fuel Consumption is about 0.69 kg/hr and 0.61 kg/hr for diesel oil and PVC/diesel oil; Specific Fuel consumption is about 0.37 kg/kWhr and 0.32 kg/kWhr for diesel oil and PVC/diesel oil respectively; Brake thermal efficiency is about 22.5% and 27.4% for diesel oils and PVC/diesel oil respectively. From the Figures, it is observed that the Total Fuel Consumption is reduced by about 11.6 %, Specific Fuel Consumption is reduced by about 13.5% and the increase in Brake thermal Efficiency is about 23%. The results indicate the oil derived from waste plastic can be used as a promising alternate fuel for transportation. As the scope of the present work is limited with low volume concentration blending, further research work is clearly required to ensure its feasibility as alternate for transportation fuel.

600 400 200 0 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 y = 0.492x2 - 57.90x + 2464. R = 0.945

Temperature C

Fig. 10 Variation of density of B5 oil with temperature

Fig. 12 Comparison of Total Fuel Consumption at 50% loading

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2nd International Conference on Chemical, Ecology and Environmental Sciences (ICCEES'2012) Singapore April 28-29, 2012

kg/kWhr and 0.32 kg/kWhr for diesel oil and PVC/diesel oil respectively; Brake thermal efficiency is about 22.5% and 27.4% for diesel oils and PVC/diesel oil respectively. Total Fuel Consumption is reduced by about 11.6 %, Specific Fuel Consumption is reduced by about 13.5% and the increase in Brake thermal Efficiency is about 23%.

Hence, it can be concluded that the oil derived from waste plastic can be used as a promising alternate fuel for transportation. ACKNOWLEDGMENT Fig. 13 Comparison of Specific Fuel Consumption at 50% loading The authors wish to thank Combat Vehicle Research and Development Establishment (CVRDE), Government of India, Avadi, Chennai, India for its financial support to this work (CVRDE Sanction letter No. CVRDE/MMG/1011/0012/CARS Dt. 31.05.2010). REFERENCES
S.H. Hamid, M.B. Amin, A.G. Maadhah, Handbook of Polymer Degradation, Marcel Decker, New York, 1992. [2] P.T. Williams, E.A. Williams, Interaction of Plastics in Mixed-Plastics Pyrolysis Energy Fuels 13 (1999) 188-196. [3] A. Demirbas, Waste management, waste resource facilities and waste conversion processes, Energy Conversion and Management 52 (2011) 12801287 [4] J. Walendziewski, Engine fuel derived from plastics by thermal treatment, fuel 81 (2002) 473-481 [5] A.K. Panda, R.K. Singh, D.K. Mishra, Thermolysis of waste plastics to liquid fuel A suitable method for plastic waste management and manufacture of value added Products-A world prospective, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 14 (2010) 233248 [6] M. N. Siddiqui, H.H. Redhwi, Catalytic coprocessing of waste plastics and petroleum residue into liquid fuel oils, Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis 86 (2009) 141147 [7] M. F. Ali, S. Ahmed, M. S. Qureshi, Catalytic coprocessing of coal and petroleum residues with waste plastics to produce transportation fuels Fuel Processing Technology 92 (2011) 11091120 [8] N. Miskolczi, A. Angyal, L. Bartha, I. Valkai, Fuels by pyrolysis of waste plastics from agricultural and packaging sectors in a pilot scale reactor Fuel Processing Technology 90 (2009) 10321040 [9] M. Mani, G. NagarajaN, Influence of injection timing on performance, emission and combustion characteristics of a DI diesel engine running on waste plastic oil Energy 34 (2009) 16171623 [10] O. Dogan, M. B. elik, B. zdalyan The effect of tire derived fuel/diesel fuel blends utilization on diesel engine performance and emissions, Fuel 95 (2012) 340346 [11] F. Murphy, K. M. Donnell, E. Butler, G. Devlin, The evaluation of viscosity and density of blends of Cyn-diesel pyrolysis fuel with conventional diesel fuel in relation to compliance with fuel specifications EN 590:2009, Fuel 91 (2012) 112118 [1]

Fig. 14 Comparison of Brake thermal Efficiency at 50% loading

V. CONCLUSION The following conclusions are derived from the present experimental investigation Blends of diesel with 5% volume proportions of waste plastic oil produced successfully from the thermal pyrolysis. The quality of blending process is analyzed with FTIR spectrum which shows the use of ultrasonic vibrator for blending gives good results. Compared to diesel, at same temperature, the values of density and viscosity of B5 fuel appears to be higher in the order of 27 % and 300% when compared with the diesel fuel. The feasibility of the waste plastic oils derived from PVC and PET bottle plastics as an alternate fuel for transportation is also checked by conducting performance test on a single cylinder Kirlosker diesel engine equipped with electrical loading at 50% of the engine maximum load i.e., at 3.7 kW. The test results show that the Total Fuel Consumption is about 0.69 kg/hr and 0.61 kg/hr for diesel oil and PVC/diesel oil; Specific Fuel consumption is about 0.37
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