Pyrolysis of plastic waste generates alternative fuels that are useful for thermal devices. However, it is the subsequent fractionation process that truly distinguishes itself, refining these fuels to a quality comparable to petroleum derivatives such as diesel and gasoline, thereby making them suitable for direct use in internal combustion engines. This study evaluated the effect on emissions of an internal combustion engine fueled with waste plastic oil diesel-like fuel and its blend with biodiesel. The tests were conducted on-road using a typical light-duty diesel vehicle for passenger or courier transportation. Three tests were carried out, the first one with petroleum diesel (D100) as the reference fuel, the second one with waste plastic oil diesel-like fuel (WPO-DL), and the last with a blend of 80% WPO-DL and 20% biodiesel obtained from waste cooking oil (WPO-DL80WCO20). The main findings were a reduction in the generation of NOx when using WPO-DL. However, using WPO-DL increased the production of CO and HC, attributed to the presence of more heavy hydrocarbons compared to that of D100. Additionally, for the WPO-DL80WCO20 blend under acceleration conditions HC decreased under all acceleration conditions. These findings demonstrate that the distilled fuel obtained from the pyrolytic oil product of non-recyclable plastic waste by conventional methods would contribute to the global energy transition and reduce the presence of tons of non-recyclable plastic waste by traditional methods.

An alternative way to utilise waste plastics is to use waste plastic oil (WPO) in diesel engines. One way to explore the potential of WPO as an alternative fuel in diesel engines is by determining the spray macroscopic parameters. The present research will study the spray macroscopic characteristics utilising WPO and ultra-low sulphur diesel (ULSD) as the fuel baseline. To do so, the spray macroscopic parameters will be characterised in a constant volume chamber under non-evaporative and non-reactive conditions and using injection pressures ( p _rail ) of 80, 100 and 120 MPa and a back pressure ( p _b ) of 5 MPa. Among the main results reached, it can be highlighted that the spray tip penetration, spray cone angle, and spray area values of WPO are lower than those of ULSD in all injection pressure levels at the same time intervals after the start of injection. Moreover, analysing all macroscopic spray parameters and under the operating conditions studied, it can be concluded that the mixing process of WPO is faster than ULSD. Thus, WPO shows potential as an alternative fuel for diesel engines. Lastly, the present research provides useful information that may be used to support simulations of the injection process using WPO.

A method to evaluate the performance of annual solar concentrators is presented. The ray-tracing technique is regularly used to assess the solar concentrator's performance; however, most of the works in this area simplify the simulation process by considering representative scenarios throughout the year, such as solar tracking studies in summer and winter solstices or monthly averages to evaluate the annual system performance. The presented method develops annual simulations using dynamic data exchange protocol to allow communication between TracePro^® and MATLAB with defined time intervals, applied to assess the integration of a reflector system to evacuated tube collectors under three configurations: rear reflector plate, compound parabolic concentrator, and parabolic concentrator; the finding that the latter presents the most favorable results, increasing the incident radiation on the outside of the tubes up to 36%.