Feasibility Study of Using Wood Pyrolysis Oil in a Dual-injection Diesel Engine

Abstract

Abstract : The vast stores of biomass available in the worldwide have the potential to displace significant amounts of petroleum fuels. Fast pyrolysis of biomass is one of several paths by which we can convert biomass to higher value products. The wood pyrolysis oil (WPO) has been regarded as an alternative fuel for petroleum fuels to be used in diesel engine. However, the use of WPO in a diesel engine requires modifications due to low energy density, high water contents, high acidity, high viscosity, and low cetane number of the WPO. One possible method by which the shortcomings may be circumvented is to co-fire WPO with other petroleum fuels. WPO has poor miscibility with light petroleum fuel oils; the most suitable candidates fuels for direct fuel mixing are methanol or ethanol. Early mixing with methanol or ethanol has the added benefit of significantly improving the storage and handling properties of the WPO. For separate injection co-firing, a WPO-ethanol blended fuel can be fired through diesel pilot injection in a dual-injection dieel engine. In this study, the performance and emission characteristics of a dual-injection diesel engine fuelled with diesel (pilot injection) and WPO-ethanol blend (main injection) were experimentally investigated. Results showed that although stable engine operation was possible with separate injection co-firing, the fuel conversion efficiency was slightly decreased due to high water contents of WPO compare to diesel combustion.