Durability, Lube Oil Contamination and a Ferrography Study on a Diesel Engine Fuelled with Distilled Tyre Oil

Abstract

This research work focuses on durability tests on diesel engines powered by 30 vol% distilled tyre oil with diesel (DTPO30). The duration of the study was for 1500 running hours and includes an analysis of engine performance, emission formation, viscosity, wear, and additives in lubrication oil with a ferrographic examination. The respective wear and additives in the oil were measured every 450 hours. In the engine running on DTPO30, brake thermal efficiency (BTE) declined by up to 0.5% and brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) also diminished by up to 1.5% after 1500 hours when compared with the initial stage operation. In addition, all the harmful emission parameters such as NOx, CO, and HC grew by between 0.7 % and 1.1%. The viscosity of lube oil was observed to fall by up to 13% with diesel and 36% with DTPO30 compared with the initial condition. The amount of additives was also lower in the lubrication oil in DTPO30 compared with in pure diesel. A higher carbon deposition was also found in many places, such as in the piston top, around the injector nozzle, and in the valve seat with DTPO30. The wear of each part was identified by estimating the metal contamination in the lube oil by means of a ferrography tester. Further, the metal contaminations in the lube oil were found to amount to as high as 79% in DTPO30. In addition, the size of the particles was identified to be larger than in the case of diesel.