Performance and Emission Characteristics of Pyrolysis Oil Obtained from Neem de Oiled Cake and Waste Polystyrene in a Compression Ignition Engine

Plastic is a resilient, chemically inert, lightweight, and low-cost material. It sticks around in the environment for more than hundred years, threatening nature and spreading toxins. The current study deals with the use of waste polymeric materials and de oiled cake for the production of liquid oil and its blend on the performance and emission characteristics of diesel engine. The tests were conducted in an engine fuelled with diesel and four distinct blends such as 5% (B5), 10% (B10), 15% (B15), and 20% (B20), respectively. The liquid oil was produced by co-pyrolysis of neem de oiled cake (NDC) and waste polystyrene (WPS) in 1 : 2 blend ratio. The raw pyrolysis oil and its different blends were tested for their physical and chemical characteristics in order to find their suitability. Brake power (BP), brake thermal efficiency (BTE), brake-specific fuel consumption (BSFC), emissions of carbon monoxide (CO), hydrocarbon (HC), and nitrogen oxide (NOx) are used to assess the performance of the engine. The experimental results reveal that BTE at all blends is lower than diesel at all loads and the BSFC increases with increasing blend ratio and falls with increasing engine load. At higher loads, the deviation of performance and emission values from baseline diesel up to B10 is very small. It is found from the results that the liquid oil derived from NDC and WPS up to 10% blend will be the promising additive for fossil fuels.

Development of Waste Polystyrene-Based Copper Oxide/Reduced Graphene Oxide Composites and Their Mechanical, Electrical and Thermal Properties

The current study reports the effect of different wt. ratios of copper oxide nanoparticle (CuO-NPs) and reduced graphene oxide (rGO) as fillers on mechanical, electrical, and thermal properties of waste polystyrene (WPS) matrix. Firstly, thin sheets of WPS-rGO-CuO composites were prepared through solution casting method with different ratios, i.e., 2, 8, 10, 15 and 20 wt.% of CuO-NPs and rGO in WPS matrix. The synthesized composite sheets were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX), X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA). The electrical conductance and mechanical strength of the prepared composites were determined by using LCR meter and universal testing machine (UTM). These properties were dependent on the concentrations of CuO-NPs and rGO. Results display that the addition of both fillers, i.e., rGO and CuO-NPs, collectively led to remarkable increase in the mechanical properties of the composite. The incorporation of rGO-CuO: 15% WPS sample, i.e., WPS-rGO-CuO: 15%, has shown high mechanical strength with tensile strength of 25.282 MPa and Young modulus of 1951.0 MPa, respectively. Similarly, the electrical conductance of the same composite is also enhanced from 6.7 × 10−14 to 4 × 10−7 S/m in contrast to WPS at 2.0 × 106 Hz. The fabricated composites exhibited high thermal stability through TGA analysis in terms of 3.52% and 6.055% wt. loss at 250 °C as compared to WPS.

Acetylation Modification of Waste Polystyrene and Its Use as a Crude Oil Flow Improver

Polystyrene is used in a wide range of applications in our lives, from machine housings to plastic cups and miniature electronic devices. When polystyrene is used, a large amount of waste is produced, which can cause pollution to the environment and even harm biological and human health. Due to its low bulk density (especially the foamed type) and low residual value, polystyrene cannot be easily recycled. Often waste polystyrene is difficult to recycle. In this paper, waste polystyrene has been modified by using acetic anhydride which caused a crude oil flow improver. The results showed that modified polystyrene improves the flow properties of the crude oil, reducing the viscosity and the pour point of the crude oil by up to 84.6% and 8.8 °C, respectively. Based on the study of the paraffin crystal morphology, the mechanism of improving the flow capacity of crude oil by modified polystyrene was proposed and analyzed.