Waste to Alternative Fuel: Experimental Investigation of the Effects of Pyrolytic Oil Obtained from Waste Tires, Waste Transformer Oil, and Diesel Fuel Ternary Blends on Engine Performance and Exhaust Emissions in a Diesel Engine

In recent years, the worsened environmental impacts and the limited reserve of fossil fuels have increased interest in alternative fuels. Fuels obtained by recycling waste streams, such as waste tires and transformer oils, are promising options. Pyrolytic oil from end-of-life waste tires is not an alternative for diesel engines on its own, but its fuel blends with diesel in different proportions enable its use in diesel engines without any modification. Furthermore, transformer oils used as heat-transfer fluids in electrical transformers reach the end of their useful life after completing a certain number of cycles and become waste. This waste stream can also be used to blend diesel fuel. In this study, waste transformer oil (WTRO) and pyrolytic oil from waste tires (WTPO) were mixed with diesel fuel in different ratios to prepare binary and ternary blends: WTRO30, WTRO10WTPO20, WTRO20WTPO10, and WTPO30. The performance and emissions of these fuel blends were investigated on a diesel engine. To avoid knocking, a cetane-number improver was added to all blends at a volume ratio of 1%. In addition, detailed analyses of certain physicochemical and thermochemical properties (FT-IR, density, kinematic viscosity, cloud point, pour point, and lower heating value) of all blends were performed. The results of the study showed that the chemical properties of the prepared blends exhibited similar results to diesel fuel. When compared with pure diesel data, the most significant performance loss across all speed ranges was observed in the WTPO30 fuel sample. The use of WTPO30 resulted in a noticeable decrease in maximum torque and a brake power while recording the highest brake specific fuel consumption and lowest brake thermal efficiency. Furthermore, significant increases in CO, NO, and NOx emissions were observed. The results of the study revealed striking findings regarding the use of WTPO and WTRO in diesel engines.