Magnetic field applied to fuel can alter its characteristics in terms of forces that hold the hydrocarbons together. This principle was used to investigate the impact of incorporating a magnetic tube in the fuel intake in a diesel generator on specifically the energy performance and pollutant emissions. A diesel generator was fitted with a magnetic tube in the fuel intake, which had valves to switch from without magnetic tube case to with magnetic tube case. The diesel generator was operated at constant speed of 1800 rpm at idle condition, 25% and 50% loads, respectively. Additionally, two real diesel cars were deployed with magnetic tube and their fuel consumption compared with that of a car without magnetic tube. With application of magnetic tube, the brake specific fuel consumption and fuel consumption were decreased by an average of 3.5% and 15%, respectively, while the brake thermal efficiency was improved by approximately 3.5%. The particulate matter, carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons and carbon dioxide emissions reduced in the range of 21.9-33.3%, 5.4-11.3%, 29.4-64.7% and 2.68-4.18%, respectively. Both the total PAH concentrations and total BaPeq concentrations can be reduced by about 63%, 45% and 51%, respectively for idle condition, 25% and 50% loads, respectively. These results show that application of magnetic tubes in the diesel engine is a promising technology in pollutant reduction and energy saving.

Illegal harvesting and recycling of waste cooking oil, also referred to as "gutter oil" in many countries, poses a great food safety threat. Thus, in this study the feasibility of using waste cooking oil as an auxiliary fuel in the furnace of laboratory waste incinerator was evaluated in terms of toxic pollutant emissions. Two fuel blends (W20D80 and W40D60) were blended from varying proportions of diesel fuel (D100), and waste cooking oil (W100) and their physio-chemical characteristics were subsequently determined and compared. Thermogravimetry analysis (TGA) and derivative thermogravimetry (DTG) of D100, W100, W20D80 and W40D60 showed that diesel fuel consist of more volatile short aliphatic hydrocarbons, while the waste cooking oil and its blends had more thermal stable unsaturated long chain molecules. After the de novo synthesis window of 200-400°C, 40% of waste cooking oil and 60% of diesel (W40D60) was injected at around 500-700°C, and reduced the toxicity concentrations of PCDD/Fs and PCBs by an average of 86% and 94%, respectively. This study demonstrated that, by using waste cooking oil as a fuel blend, not only can reduce the possibility of "gutter oil" being put in the food to damage the health of human beings, but also can be recycled as a kind of green fuel to reduce the emissions of persistent organic pollutants (POPs).

In this study, two diesel blends with different iso-butanol and isopropyl alcohol ratios, 5% iso-propanol with 15% isobutanol and 1% iso-propanol and 19% iso-butanol, were used and compared against the performance of petroleum diesel as a base fuel. Additionally, water addition strategy was included for further comparison. Brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) increased with increasing ratios of iso-butanol and water fractions, since the heating value decreased resulting in more fuel being combusted to maintain the same power output. On the other hand, brake thermal efficiency (BTE) increased with increasing water content. Specifically, P5B15W1 had a higher BTE than regular diesel at low engine loads (12 kW and 25 kW-LS). Compared to the regular diesel, the results show that in-cylinder pressures slightly increased while HRR had longer ignition delay with higher iso-butanol and water content. For the two different ratios of blended diesel, P1B19 registered NO x emission reductions factors by about 12-35% compared regular diesel due to its low heating value and combustion temperature, while those for P5B15 were reduced 8-33% in comparison to regular diesel. For CO and PM emission factors, P5B15 had better performance than P1B19 which showed 13-37% and 37-50% lower than regular diesel, respectively. However, HC emission factors were all greater than those of regular diesel with the highest increase being from P1B19. This diesel blend, P1B19 showed 6-30% and 3-10% higher HC emission factors than regular diesel and P5B15, respectively. For water containing blends, NO x emission factors decreased with an increase in water content. The trends for CO and PM emission factors were similar to those of non-water containing diesel blends. P5B15W1 had largest decrease which showed 5-17% and 7-26% lower CO and PM than regular diesel, respectively. Notably, the CO and PM emission factors are all higher than non-water contain blended diesel. As for HC, P5B15W1 had an increase of about 26-51%. Moreover, the total-PAHs emission factors between two different ratios of blended diesel were compared whereby P5B15 had 12-22% lower than P1B19. Besides, total-BaPeq emission factors are similar to totalPAHs emission, which P5B15 had largest reduction by 28-44%. In summary, P5B15 would be a best choice in terms of PM reduction, while the best choice for NOx control would be P1B19W0.5 blend. Ultimately, further economic feasibility studies are recommended for an overall performance evaluation.

No abstract

In this work, the Adsorption Method for Sampling (AMESA) is developed to collect long-term samples of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) from stacks. However, the variation of in duration might affect the analytical results due to the memory effect in the AMESA. This research is one of the very few reports of using AMESA in sinter plants. Eight long-term AMESA (LA) samples were collected, followed by 16 parallel short-term AMESA (SA) and manual (SM) samples. The LA reports good correlations (R = 0.82-0.83) between PCDD/F emissions and the recovery feedstock, which can be further used for emission reduction. However, the breakthrough effects of the highly chlorinated PCDD/Fs is in the range of 6-14% in LA samples, and these are further improved by increasing the glass wool and adsorbent (with higher specific surface area, lower pore size, and higher polarity) packing, and finally reduced to 5.17%. For the shortterm sampling, a maximum difference of 170% occurred between SA and SM, if the sampling strategy suddenly changed from LA to SA. The PCDD/F memory effect remained for the first 8 SA samples, with the dominant 1,2,3,4,6,7,8-HpCDD and OCDD. Therefore, five post-washings for the AMESA system took place to successfully reduce the PCDD/F residual mass to > 0.2% of a normal LA. Unfortunately, these residuals were still equal to 51.4% of a normal SA. Therefore, it is not suggested that AMESA replace the current manual sampling method without any modification. According to this study, both the breakthrough and memory effects could be inhibited. Finally, a new inspection system, including both AMESA and shortterm samples, is then proposed for improving the PCDD/F control strategy in Taiwan.