Performance emission and combustion characteristics of a diesel engine fueled with oil obtained from waste fishing net

Abstract

Better fuel economy, longer durability and higher reliability are the major factors which make diesel engine to play a vital role in various sectors like industrial, agricultural, power, construction etc. This causes a huge demand for energy and the cost of fossil fuel keeps on increasing. Also, the harmful emissions from diesel engine could cause severe air pollution, ozone depletion, and other health related problems. This provokes the researchers to find an alternate fuel to be used in compression ignition engine as a replacement for diesel fuel. Recently, fuel produced from waste plastics is gaining more attention due to its availability all over the world. It has been proven that oil produced from waste plastics have similar properties to that of diesel and works satisfactorily on diesel engine. Experimental results showed that brake thermal efficiency was comparatively lower and emissions were higher when plastic oil was used in diesel engine as fuel. Fishing in India is one of the major occupations for the people along the coastal line and India is the second largest producer of fish. In general, fishing net is used for catching fishes and it is usually made from nylon and High Density Polyethylene (HDPE). After prolonged use, the damaged fishing net was either taken to recycling process or dumped in ocean or disposed in waste landfill sites. It has been estimated that, approximately 6,40,000 tonnes of waste fishing nets are currently in the ocean causing severe threats to sea animals. The non-biodegradable nature of fishing net is causing severe land and water pollution. One of the ways to recycle the waste HDPE fishing net is to convert it into fuel through pyrolysis process. newline