A Study on Thermo-catalytic Degradation for Production of Clean Transport Fuel and Reducing Plastic Wastes

AbstractBoth the landfilling and incineration processes of plastic waste management system are identified as sources of pollutant gas emitters. Reprocessing is also uneconomical in comparison to the virgin plastic products in terms of commercial values due to polymeric contamination. This article studies the thermo-catalytic conversion processes waste plastics. The reaction conditions and the quantification of types of catalysts used for the conversion processes influenced the quality of the resultant hydrocarbons. Obtaining higher yield of conversion and transport grade fuel require more investigation to adapt this technical process as one of the effective alternative resources for fuel production. Thermo-catalytic process resolves the problem of halogen contents in the PVC type plastics by converting them into residues with the use of NaHCO3 and AgNO3 which capture chlorine type products from the gaseous hydrocarbons. Addition of catalysts in the convenient reactor reduces the requirement of higher temperature operations like thermal cracking processes and produces more liquefied products. It has been observed that, the aromatic plastic contents should be observed during the conversion process to obtain fuels based on allowable aromatic contents according to the fuel standards and emission regulations implemented in respective regions. The temperature of the process need to be controlled as per the boiling points of the mixture contents to avoid formation of vapor in the reactor which could causes sticky adherence to the reactor walls. A continuous liquid fractionating distillation process can reduce the formation of light gases in the yield. It was also found that the mixture of LDPE, HDPE, PP and PS yield 87.19% fuel with 20 wt% ZnO catalyst at 200 – 400°C in a steel reactor. These fuels can be used directly in the automotive engines or can be retreated in the refineries to divide into gasoline and diesel fuels as per carbon chains. Since the plastic feedstocks do not contain any sulfur components the produced fuel can be treated as clean enough. Thus the fuels produced from this process can be considered as one of the potential alternative resources of fuel production resulting into an effective reduction of plastic wastes in a country

Biofuel: An Australian Perspective in Abating the Fossil Fuel Vulnerability

AbstractThe fossil fuels are now considered as one of the most environmentally unsustainable energy resources though they are the major energy source for transport sectors and other industries. Increased demand of fuel consumption can lead to the threat of energy supply instability and the consequences of energy uses and emission on both environment and economy are significant concerns of most of the countries. This article reviews the vulnerability of Australian fuel supply chain and a brief description on how biofuels can turn into significant alternative resources of fossil fuel. It has been observed that the prospective applications of biofuel can assist in abating both the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and fossil fuel vulnerabilities. Currently, Australia imports about 37% of the total crude oil demand managing a diverse supply chain system. The local refining capacities are not utilized properly. No more technically advanced projects are under consideration to achieve self-sufficiency to make the best use of domestic crudes in order to reduce the fuel imports. Though Australia possesses abundant facility of producing inedible biofuel feedstocks, high costs for feedstock processing has caused shut down of 68% of the existing biofuel refineries. But, biofuels can reduce over 60% of the GHG emissions caused by the same amount of fossil fuels. Though the Government has granted an excise of flat tax on biofuels until 2021 to promote the commercial growth in this sector, the lack of infrastructure investment from the Government has been slowed the progress of this industry since its inception. Establishment of regional biofuels refineries can reduce both the distribution transport cost and import load of the fossil fuels. Being alternative resources, biofuel production can effectively make the best use of deserted or unused lands, creating employment opportunities and reducing both fossil fuel market instability and environment pollutions

Application of blend fuels in a diesel engine

AbstractExperimental study has been carried out to analyze engine performance and emissions characteristics for diesel ngine using different blend fuels without any engine modifications. A total of four fuel samples, such as DF (100% iesel fuel), JB5 (5% jatropha biodiesel and 95% DF), JB10 (10% JB and 90% DF) and J5W5 (5% JB, 5% waste ooking oil and 90% DF) respectively were used in this study. Engine performance test was carried out at 100% load eeping throttle 100% wide open with variable speeds of 1500 to 2400rpm at an interval of 100rpm. Whereas, mission tests were carried out at 2300rpm at 100% and 80% throttle position. As results of investigations, the erage torque reduction compared to DF for JB5, JB10 and J5W5 was found as 0.63%, 1.63% and 1.44% and verage power reduction was found as 0.67%, 1.66% and 1.54% respectively. Average increase in bsfc compared to F was observed as 0.54%, 1.0% JB10 and 1.14% for JB5, JB10 and J5W5 respectively. In case of engine exhaust as emissions, compared to DF average reduction in HC for JB5, JB10 and J5W5 at 2300rpm and 100% throttle osition found as 8.96%, 11.25% and 12.50%, whereas, at 2300 and 80% throttle position, reduction was as 16.28%, 0.23% and 31.98% respectively. Average reduction in CO at 2300rpm and 100% throttle position for JB5, JB10 and 5W5 was found as 17.26%, 25.92% and 26.87%, whereas, at 80% throttle position, reduction was observed as 0.70%, 33.24% and 35.57%. Similarly, the reduction in CO2 compared to DF for JB5, JB10 and J5W5 at 2300rpm nd 100% throttle position was as 12.10%, 20.51% and 24.91%, whereas, at 80% throttle position, reductions was bserved as 5.98%, 10.38% and 18.49% respectively. However, some NOx emissions were increased for all blend els compared to DF. In case of noise emission, sound level for all blend fuels was reduced compared to DF. It can e concluded that JB5, JB10 and J5W5 can be used in diesel engines without any engine modifications However, 5B5 produced some better results when compared to JB10

Techno-economic analysis of recently improved hydrogen production pathway and infrastructure

The objective of this study is to identify the techno-economic factors for the recent hydrogen production pathways and their relevant infrastructures so that the costs reported in the recent articles be easily identified for further analysis. The comparison of the levelised cost of hydrogen production (LCOH) from the steam reforming process and renewable electricity-based electrolysis processes has shown that process efficiency improvement, feedstock price and requirement of scaling up of newer investments are the key areas of attention. Very efficient technical development is yet to implement to offer LCOH of less than 2 USD/kg H2from any of these technologies along with carbon capture and storage (CCS) or scaling up the low-cost renewable electricity facilities. To facilitate rapid growth in development, the LCOH reported by one project can turn into input to another project of the supply chain system through following common standards. Scaling-up is also essential as the industries requiring more than 100 tonnes of H2per day can be benefited from integrating the solar PV, grid excess electricity and CCS coupled electricity generation from fossil fuels if the identified techno-economic barriers are solved based on the targeted LCOH. Lower LCOH will encourage the end-users to adopt the newer technology for energy production, which will effectively manage the environmental sustainability targets

Performance and emission characteristics of a CI engine with post-treated plastic pyrolysis oil and diesel blend

Conversion of waste plastics into energy products is an effective waste management technique as they constitute a considerable portion of solid waste at present. In this study, distilled diesel fraction of Plastic Pyrolysis Oil (PPO) named Distilled Plastic Diesel (DPD) was hydrotreated named hydrotreated plastic diesel (HPD) and blended with commercial diesel fuel by 15:85 ratio (wt%), defined as HPD15, to experimentally investigate the performance and emission characteristics of a compression ignition (CI) engine. The experiment was done in 4-cylinder, 4-stroke diesel engine with an eddy current dynamometer testbed at full load (100 % engine load) and an engine speed of 1200–2400 rpm with 300 rpm intervals. The results are compared with neat diesel fuel data at the same operating conditions. This study found that HPD15 performed better or comparable with diesel fuel. Overall, the brake power (BP) and brake thermal efficiency (BTE) of HPD15 were higher than diesel fuel by a maximum of about 4.77 % and 3.77 %, respectively. Brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) of HPD15 was lower at all operating speeds (by a maximum of about 4.66 %) and brake specific energy consumption (BSEC) was lower in most of the operating speeds (by a maximum of about 3.77 %). This study also revealed that CO2 at some operating speeds and NOx emission at all operating speeds for HPD15 are lower than diesel fuel. However, CO and unburnt hydrocarbon (UHC) emission are slightly higher for HPD15 than diesel at all speeds. Overall, HPD15 can be recommended as a suitable alternative for diesel fuel without any engine modification