Sailing towards sustainability: Waste ship oil sludge as diesel alternative

• Pyrolysis of waste-ship oil sludge was conducted to yield diesel-like fuel. • Pyro-oils were blended to replace 10%, 20%, 30%, 50% and 100% commercial diesel. • Combustion, performance, and exhaust characteristics matched with that of diesel. • Pyrolyzed waste ship-oil sludge can replace 100% diesel without engine modification. • This fuel exhibits similar engine performance to diesel with less carbon footprint. Waste ship-oil sludge (WSOS), a hazardous by-product of marine operations, was converted into sustainable liquid fuel through pyrolysis to reduce carbon footprint and support clean-energy transition in the maritime sector. The waste ship oil sludge has been converted into a sustainable liquid fuel at 550 °C and 600 °C (named as F1 & F2 respectively to indicate fuel 1 and fuel 2) with properties equivalent to that of diesel. The fuel derived from the pyrolysis of the waste ship oil sludge has been blended with 10%, 20%, 30%, 50%,& 100% of diesel B10, B20, B30, B50 & B100 respectively. The F1 B100 blends reported 66.73 bar has the highest in-cylinder pressure and a maximum heat release of 34.05 J °CA -1 . The brake thermal efficiency decreased by 15% for F1 B100 fuels in comparison with the diesel. A 20% increase in fuel consumption was reported for F1 B100 sample. The F1 B100 fuel reported a reduced emission in comparison to commercial diesel fuel. The results indicated that the pyrolyzed WSOS has a greater potential to be used as a blend to diesel fuel to power an unmodified diesel engine as it exhibits comparable performance to that of diesel with lesser carbon footprint. The WSOS has been regarded as a hazardous material by the USEPA. Non availability of standards pertaining to ship oil sludge disposal results in unethical dumping the ship oil sludge in the oceans affecting the marine life. Previous studies on WSOS reports velarization through pyrolysis . the utilization of WSOS derived fuel has not been reported. This work is the first of its kind to descriptively cover the production of fuel-equivalent pyro-oil from WSOS and usage of the fuel derived in a diesel engine.