An investigation of using pyrolysis rubber oil in diesel engine

Energy is an essential feature in our lives and vital to our well being. It is fortunate that the current oil price is low and there are surplus in the oil market. Bearing any major catastrophe, the world will enjoy this phenomenon for `guite` sometime. The need to conserve energy has been put back and actions are taken to promote industrialisation further especially in the stiff, demanding and competitive world. However there is still to need to study and aware of the potential of energy supply be it renewable type. Apart from this the environmental issue arising from the intensive utilisation of fossil fuels has become a serious concern throughout the world. As a result engineers, scientists and technolgists are searching for new, alternative and promising sources of energy. Rubber is one of the potential sources. From the elemental compisition and thermal characteristics of rubber, it appeared that the rubber could be used for the production of alternative fuel via fixed-bed pyrolysis reactor sytem. Pyrolysis may be described as the thermal degradation of materials in complete absence or inadequate presence of oxygen. Recently pyrolysis is meant for dominant liquid production. The system is made from stainless steel. The system consists of gas pre-heater, pyrolytic reactor, liquid condenser and liquid collectors. The pyrolytic reactor is a 30 cm high and 5 cm diameter. The volume of the reactor is 520 cm superscript 3. The reactor was heated externally by cylindrical electric ring heater. The temperature of the reactor are measured and controlled by thermocouples and temperature controllers. Gas nitrogen is used as heat carrier gas. The incoming nitrogen gas was preheated in a gas pre-heating chamber prior to the reactor. The gas flow rate was measured and controlled by gas flow meter. The products obtained were liquid oil, solid char and gas. The oil and char were collected separately while the gases were flared. The liquid oil which was less bulky and more convenient to handle than the original solid rubber, may be used as raw fuel in dedicated diesel engines. The liquid oil was characterised by Fourier transform infra-red (FT-ir) spectroscopy and gas chromatograph-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) techniquaes for its functional compositional group and fetailed chemical composition. Detailed analysis of the oil showed that there was no concentration of biologically active polycyclic aromatic species in the oil. The fuel properties of the derived oil, including gross calorific value, kinematic viscosity, density, sulphur content, ash content, carbon residue etc, were also analysed and compared to diesel fuel. Finally, this paper emphasises the performance and exhaust emission results of a small single-cylinder diesel engine fueled by blending of fifty percent of rubber oil and fifty percent diesel fuel.