Performance of a 4-cylinder diesel engine running on tire oil-biodiesel-diesel blend

The objective of this research was to investigate the performance of a 4-cylinder, light-duty compression ignition (Cl) engine fueled with the binary and ternary blends of tire oil, biodiesel and certified #2 diesel fuels. The tire oil was produced from scrap tires via pyrolysis and pretreated before blending with biodiesel and diesel fuels. The fuel blends contained 5% and 10% tire oil. The power, torque and brake specific fuel consumption, and the exhaust emissions of oxides of nitrogen (NOx), carbon dioxide (CO2), and carbon monoxide (CO) were determined from the constant speed engine tests at full throttle. Blending 10% tire oil with 10% biodiesel and 80% diesel fuel produced the highest torque and power outputs, and reduced the brake specific fuel consumption significantly. The NOx and CO emissions from the tire oil (10%) containing a ternary fuel blend were significantly lower than the biodiesel (10%)-diesel (90%) binary fuel. Recycling the scrap tires to produce tire oil via pyrolysis is a promising method for reducing the impact of this waste material to the environment. Once pretreated by filtering and desulfurization, tire oil can be used as an alternative fuel for diesel engines. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.