Durability analysis of a single cylinder DI diesel engine operating with a non-petroleum fuel

Tyre pyrolysis oil (TPO) derived from pyrolysis of scrap tyres has been proven as a source of heat energy. Earlier investigations indicated that, a blend (JMETPO20) comprising of 20% TPO and 80% Jatropha methyl ester (JME) was found to be the optimum blend, when tested in a diesel engine. A comparative study reported in this paper is aimed to examine the durability issues of a direct injection diesel engine run on the JMETPO20 blend and diesel. For this purpose, the engine operated with the JMETPO20 blend and diesel was run for 100 h, which consist of 14 test cycles of 7 h each as per the IS 10000 standards. Visual examination of the vital parts of the engine components such as cylinder head, piston crown, and nozzle injector tip, etc. was also carried out to find the carbon deposit after the durability test. After the durability test, several tribological characteristics of the used lubricating oil were evaluated after every 25 h of engine operation in order to analyze the consequence of fuel chemistry on the life of the lubricating oil. Measurement of different metal debris concentrations present in the lubricating oil samples drawn from the JMETPO20 blend and diesel operated engine was carried out by the atomic absorption spectroscopy.