Optimization of Waste Plastic Oil with Water Emulsion in DI Diesel Engine Using Response Surface Methodology

Abstract

Waste plastics have produced very serious environmental challenges due to their enormous quantities and problems involved in their disposal. The most attractive technique of chemical feedstock recycling process is pyrolysis. The oil is obtained by the pyrolysis process from the waste plastics can be utilized as an alternative fuel in the diesel engine without any modifications which results in increase the emissions. In this experimental investigation, Waste Plastic Oil (WPO)-water emulsion blend of fuels are prepared to study the combustion, performance and emission characteristics of the single cylinder, air cooled and Direct Injection (DI) diesel engine at various engine loads. Further optimization study has been carried with Response Surface Methodology (RSM) to find that the WPO blend which produce higher Brake thermal efficiency (BTE) and lower oxide of nitrogen (NO_X) emission among PW10, PW20 and PW30. Optimized process parameters used for the optimum responses were identified such as A = PW30 fuel blend and B = 70 % engine load with optimum parametric combination, BTE can be achieved as high as 27.16 % and NO_X can be achieved as low as 217.2 ppm. Confirmation study reveals the closeness of the predicted values for BTE and NO_X with the experimental values.