Abstract
Characteristics of distilled oil derived from slow pyrolysis of waste rubber were investigated in order to explore its application as diesel additive for application in compression ignition (CI) engines. Light oil fractions were obtained from batch distillation of crude rubber pyrolysis oil at 250oC. Physical properties such as calorific value, density, viscosity, flash point, water content, total contamination and sulphur were measured followed by functional group identification using a Fourier Transform Infra-Red Spectroscopy (FTIR). Distilled tyre oil exhibited near comparable properties to diesel fuel with low viscosity, flash point and high sulphur content. A number of functional groups were identified in distilled oil which were also found in commercial diesel. It was observed that distilled rubber oil that is filtered through 13X molecular sieves may be potentially used as an alternative diesel additive.