Characterization and evaluation of distilled tire pyrolysis oil and its potential as a supplement to diesel fuel

Abstract

An investigation on the fraction of tire pyrolysis oil with a distillation range similar to that of automotive diesel (150–360°C) was carried out to determine its suitability as an alternative or supplement to diesel fuel. The quality of this oil was evaluated by comparing its key properties to the requirements for South African National Standards for Automotive diesel fuel (SANS-342) and also to conventional automotive diesel fuel. The viscosity, density, and copper strip corrosion of this fuel were found to be within the acceptable limits, while sulfur content and flush point were out of their respective set limit. In addition, mixing rule equations for predicting viscosity and density for both pure and blends of the oil as a function of temperature were developed and evaluated. The equations were found suitable due to their low absolute percentage deviation (APD).