Improving Diesel Fuel Quality with an additive of Biodiesel-Plastic

Diesel fuel is regarded as highly critical fuel in many countries due to its wide applications. It is a big environmental pollutant as it contains different hydrocarbons, sulphur and crude oil residues. Nowadays, biodiesel as a renewable additive is blended with diesel fuel to achieve many advantages such as lower emissions and higher lubricity attributes. However, few key drawbacks including high production cost, lower performance and likelihood to increase nitrogen oxides emissions have been proved. Expanded polystyrene (EPS), known as a polymer for packaging and insulation, is an ideal material for energy recovery as it holds high energy value. It is well proven that 1 kg of EPS is equivalent to 1.3 liters of liquid fuel. In this study, biodiesel was applied as a solvent of expanded polystyrene (EPS) during a special chemical and physical treatment. Various percentages of EPS in biodiesel blended diesel were tested to evaluate the fuel properties, emissions and performance of CI engine. Optimum composition was considered as additive formula. The results of the variance analysis revealed that the addition of the additive improved diesel fuel by increasing the flash point as well as the reduction of density and viscosity values. Furthermore, despite a 3.6% reduction in brake power significant decrease in brake specific fuel consumption (7.26%) and increase in brake thermal efficiency (7.83%) was obtained when operating the engine at full load and maximum speed. Furthermore, sustainable reductions of CO, CO2, NOx and smoke as the major exhaust emissions were achieved.

Keywords:

Diesel fuel , Biodiesel , Polymer , Engine Performance , Emissions