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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Therm. Eng.
Sec. Heat Engines
Volume 5 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fther.2025.1548806
This article is part of the Research Topic Hybrid Renewable Energy Systems for Power, Heating, and Cooling View all articles
Performance and emission assessment of an indirect ignition diesel engine fuelled with waste plastic pyrolysis oil and ethanol blends
Provisionally accepted- 1 Durham University, Durham, United Kingdom
- 2 National Institute of Technology Agartala, Jirania, Tripura, India
- 3 National Institute of Technology Andhra Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, India
The present study examines the performance and emission attributes of an indirect injection diesel engine powered by blends of waste plastic pyrolysis oil (WPPO) and ethanol, evaluating their viability as substitutes for traditional diesel fuel. Experimental results reveal that blend BL2 (25 vol.% WPPO and 10 vol.% ethanol) exhibits superior brake thermal efficiency (BTHE), surpassing diesel by 1.3% at full load, while other blends demonstrate comparable performance. Brake-specific fuel consumption decreases with increasing load, with BL2 outperforming diesel by 3.7% at full load. Unburned hydrocarbon emissions are lower for BL1 (15% WPPO and 5% ethanol) and BL2, with reductions of 6.7% and 10.4%, respectively, compared to diesel at full load. In contrast, blends with higher ethanol content show decreased nitric oxide emissions, with BL1 and BL2 reducing 20.1% and 21.7. Carbon monoxide emissions are consistently reduced across all blends, with 25% reductions attributed to improved oxygen availability for combustion. The findings demonstrate that WPPO-ethanol blends, particularly BL1 and BL2, offer a promising pathway for reducing environmental pollutants while maintaining or enhancing engine performance, highlighting their potential as supplementary fuels for internal combustion engines.
Keywords: Waste Plastic Pyrolysis Oil (WPPO), diesel engine performance, Emission Characteristics, alternative fuels, Brake thermal efficiency
Received: 06 Jan 2025; Accepted: 27 Feb 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Bhowmik, Deb and Sastry. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Mrinal Bhowmik, Durham University, Durham, United Kingdom
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