Tyre pyrolysis oil as an alternative fuel: A review

Abstract

Pyrolysis is a promising technology to extract energy from the waste tyre via converting into useful products i.e. tyre pyrolysis oil (TPO), pyro-gas and solid char. TPO, a dark brown/black colored liquid is used as a fuel in compression ignition (CI) engines, industrial furnaces and power plants etc. The TPO contains compounds of different hydrocarbon ranging from C5-C20 and this can be used as an alternate source of energy which may help to reduce the consumption of petroleum fuels and their rising trend in prices. Also, the potential energy content of TPO possesses many benefits such as the possibility of recycling carbon dioxide (CO2) with subsequent fall in greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs), less environment pollution compared to burning of waste tyres in open atmosphere, value added chemicals etc. Also, it was documented that TPO contains some phenolic compounds which acts as an antioxidant when blended with biodiesel. In this context, the state of the art on conversion of waste tyre into useful form of energy by pyrolysis process is discussed in this article.