Exposure of thermoplastics to methanol–gasoline blends: A material compatibility study

Alcohols are increasingly being looked upon as the most viable alternative to the conventional sources of energy. Methanol is the first member of the alcohol family and can be easily synthesized from syngas. It is an attractive blend to gasoline due to its advantageous properties. There is a necessity to make sure that the infrastructure is ready to adapt these alternative fuels. Hence, the aim of this study is to assess the degradation of widely used thermoplastics in fuel tanks, pipes, and the fuel injection system, namely, polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), polyethyleneterephthalate (PET), and high density polyethylene (HDPE) post exposure to methanol–gasoline blends (P100, M15, and M30) for a period of 4, 10, and 30 days. The effects of the exposure were examined by comparing changes in gain/loss of mass, hardness, elongation, and tensile strength. The surface morphology changes of the polymeric coupons were characterized by scanning electron microscopy and their elemental analysis was done by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The studied materials were found to gain mass in the order HDPE > PTFE >PET. The decrease in hardness was found to be more in HDPE followed by PTFE and PET. PTFE and PET showed reduction in strength but an increase in tensile strength was observed for HDPE post exposure to fuel blend. Highest change in elongation was found in HDPE followed by PTFE and PET. The changes were found to be the least in P100 followed by M15 and maximum in M30 blends for all immersion periods.

Performance of Waste Insulating Mineral Oil-Based Biodiesel in a Direct-Injection CI Engine

Mineral oil has been used as an insulating fluid in the power industry. However, surplus waste oil poses serious environmental threats because of disposal concerns. Waste to biofuel is an excellent way to deal with waste material from various sources. In this study, the trans-esterification method was utilised to convert the waste-insulating mineral oil into a quality bio-fuel. Waste-insulating transformer oil was converted to biodiesel, and it was tested according to ASTM standards. Four different blends of waste-insulating biodiesel with diesel in 25 per cent (WIOBD25), 50 per cent (WIOBD50), 75 per cent (WIOBD75), and 100 per cent fractions (WIOBD100), were used for performance testing in a direct injection compression ignition (DICI) engine. The combustion parameters such as BSFC, EGT, and BTE were evaluated with varying crank angles and constant engine speed. The waste-insulating biodiesel performance results are then compared with diesel fuel. BSFC increased as the biofuel mixture in diesel was raised, and the brake thermal efficiency (BTE) was significantly reduced compared to diesel for all WIOBD diesel mixtures. Due to the combustion process, a high pressure and heat release rate (HRR) were noticed inside the cylinder with the waste-insulating oil-derived biodiesel samples. WIOBD biodiesel blends produced lower levels of hydrocarbon, carbon monoxide, and smoke emissions than diesel fuel, but greater levels of nitrogen oxides (NOx) were produced than diesel fuel. In addition to lower emissions combined with improved engine performance, the WIOBD25 fuel blend has been found to be experimentally optimal for practical application. As a result, the test findings indicated that WIOBD biodiesel might be used as a substitute for conventional diesel fuel.

Economic Analysis For Sustainable Utilization of Ethanol Production Residues From Grain and Inedible Plant Wastes

The global initiative to find alternative fuel sources to fossil fuels is an ongoing process. As such, bioethanol is used as a fuel blend with petrol. However, large number of solid wastes is produced from ethanol plants sourcing from grain and inedible plant wastes, for example, WDGS (wet distiller’s grain with soluble) and DDGS (dry distiller’s grain with soluble) produced from ethanol plants using corn. This study investigates alternative methods for using these co-products through combustion and anaerobic digestion. Process simulation and economic analysis were conducted using current market prices to evaluate the viability of the processes. Products in the form of energy are produced. Optimization of the corn ethanol plant was also explored for re-using the heat and electricity produced in those processes. The profits of combustion and anaerobic digestion were compared. It was found that these processes will supply more viable options to simply selling the grain as feed for livestock. The anaerobic digestion of WDGS to produce electricity scenario was found to have the biggest profit among the four scenarios which can bring the annual income of 14.1 million Australian dollar to the ethanol plant. An environmental analysis of the CO2 emissions was also conducted. Using the Australian state emission factor, the amount of CO2 offset through both combustion and anaerobic digestion can be seen. The anaerobic digestion of WDGS to supply heat to the plant was proved having the largest CO2 abatement with the value of 0.58 kg-CO2e/L-EtOH.

Parametric Design & Analysis of Plastics Fuel Blend by using Taguchi Method in Diesel Engine

Over the past two centuries, energy needs have risen dramatically, particularly due to the transportation and industry sectors. However, the main made fuels like (fossil fuels) are polluting and their reserves are limited. Governments & research organization work together for make the use of renewable resources a priority and reduce irresponsible use of natural supplies through increased conservation. The energy crisis is a broad is biggest problem in world. Most people don't realize to their reality unless the price of fuel at the pump goes up or there are lines at the fuel station. Plastics waste fuel is sustainable and futuristic solution of fossil fuel as well as biggest problem of waste management of plastic waste can solve by this fuel. In thesis we prepare the plastic waste fuel by application of paralysis process in this process use low, medium and high grade of plastic and heated with limited amount of oxygen melt the plastic. The result of paralysis finds of liquid fuel and flammable gas. This fuel can be used as a blend in diesel with a proportion of B0D100, B10D90 B20D80, & B30D70 where B tent to blend of plastic fuel and D tend to diesel as if B0D100 means blend 0% and diesel 100%. These blend run diesel engine. The blends are in 10%, 20% & 30% plastic paralysis oil with standard diesel fuel. For experiment simultaneous optimization used a method called “Taguchi” used in the engine such as injection pressure and load condition. Taguchi Method of Optimization is a simplest method of optimizing experimental parameters in less number of trials.

Spray Characteristics at Preheating Temperatur of Diesel-Biodiesel-Gasoline Fuel Blend

Technological developments in diesel engines require improvements to the fuel injection system to meet the criteria for economical, high-power and efficient combustion and meet environmental regulatory standards. One method that has a lot of interest is changing the characteristics of the fuel, with the aim of producing optimal combustion. Spray characteristics have a big role in determining the quality of combustion in diesel engines. A good spray can improve the quality of fuel atomization and the homogeneity of the air-fuel mixture in the combustion chamber so that it can produce good engine performance and low emissions. This study aims to determine the effect of a diesel-biodiesel (Calophyllum inophyllum)-gasoline blendandfuel heating on the spray characteristics. The research was conducted with variations in composition (B0, B100, B30, B30G5 and B30G10) and fuel heating (40, 60, 80, and 100 °C). Fuel injected atapressure of 17 MPa in to a pressure chamber of 3 bar. The spray formed was recorded with a high-speed camera of 480 fps (resolution 224x168 pixel). In B100 biodiesel, the highest viscosity and density cause high spray tip penetration, small spray angle, and high spray velocity. The addition of diesel oil, gasoline, and heating fuel reduces the viscosity and density so that the spray tip penetration decreases, the spray angle increases and the velocity of spray decreases.

Reduced ice number concentrations in contrails from low-aromatic biofuel blends

Sustainable aviation fuels can reduce contrail ice numbers and radiative forcing by contrail cirrus. We measured apparent ice emission indices for fuels with varying aromatic content at altitude ranges of 9.1–9.8 and 11.4–11.6 km. Measurement data were collected during the ECLIF II/NDMAX flight experiment in January 2018. The fuels varied in both aromatic quantity and type. Between a sustainable aviation fuel blend and a reference fuel Jet A-1, a maximum reduction in apparent ice emission indices of 40 % was found. We show vertical ice number and extinction distributions for three different fuels and calculate representative contrail optical depths. Optical depths of contrails (0.5–3 min in age) were reduced by 40 % to 52 % for a sustainable aviation fuel compared to the reference fuel. Our measurements suggest that sustainable aviation fuels result in reduced ice particle numbers, extinction coefficients, optical depth and climate impact from contrails.

Effect of plastic oil addition on performance and emission characteristics of biogas-diesel dual fuel engine using taguchi method and prediction of performance parameter using artificial neural network

Ever increasing usage of fossil fuels and dwindling natural resources led researchers to concentrate on investigating other sources which can satisfy our demands and reduce pollution levels. Present research work aims to investigate the performance and emission characteristics of plastic, diesel and biogas as fuel blend operated in a dual-fuel engine with biogas as a primary fuel and plastic oil – diesel blends as secondary fuel and also predict the output variable using artificial neural network. A modified four-stroke single cylinder CI engine was used for experiments conducted at varying load, percentage of plastic oil percentage in diesel and biogas flow rate. Based on the levels and factors a Taguchi L9 orthogonal matrix was designed to find the optimal combination of input indices. The signal to noise ratios in taguchi method were applied based on the desired output characteristics and according to the respective SNR ratios an ANOVA table was created to determine the major contributor effecting output parameters such as brake thermal efficiency, CO, HC NOx and smoke emissions. ANN model helped to predict BTE with same input parameters but with an increased set of sample data. Based on Gradient descent and Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm the ANN architecture was trained, validated and tested to predict the response with least error. The ANOVA calculated indicates load to be the prime factor effecting BTE and NOx emission