Enhancing the combustion characteristics of plastic pyrolytic oils by doping nanocarbon additives for alternative energy

This study focuses on enhancing the combustion properties of plastic pyrolytic oil blends (LDPE and PP) by incorporating nanocarbons (fullerene and graphene). Single-droplet measurements were conducted with nanocarbon concentrations of 1 mg/L and 5 mg/L, blended with or without LDPE and PP. The experimental setup included a K-type thermocouple for temperature measurement and a CCD camera to observe droplet evolution in an atmospheric chamber. The results indicate that neat LDPE exhibited a faster evaporation rate and a shorter droplet lifetime compared to neat PP. The addition of nanocarbons to pyrolytic oils enhanced evaporation performance by a factor of two. Droplet fluctuations in nanocarbon-blended fuel significantly shortened the transient heating phase of pure pyrolytic oils. Furthermore, nanocarbon loading reduced the ignition delay by more than 30 %. A higher nanocarbon concentration (5 mg/L) in LDPE reduced the ignition delay by up to 10 %, whereas a lower concentration (1 mg/L) in PP was sufficient to achieve a similar reduction. Among the tested samples, LDPE-g1 exhibited the highest combustion rate, followed by PP-f1. The study found that graphene was the most effective additive for LDPE, while fullerene performed best with PP. Lastly, LDPE-g1 demonstrated evaporation performance comparable to petrol-diesel.