Emission Characteristics of Agricultural and Industrial Cellulosic Wastes Blended with Gasoline

Abstract

Agricultural and industrial wastes like sawdust and corncobs are definitely pollutants as they are disposed in dump sites and burnt in open air in most developing countries, like Nigeria. Proper utilization of these wastes could help reduce the environmental pollution arising from wastes disposal and combustion of fuels. Emissions generated from running an internal combustion (IC) engine with blends of gasoline and bio-ethanol produced from these wastes, as well as those of pure gasoline were compared in this work. A gas emission analyzer was placed at the exhaust of the IC engine and the readings were taken for each blend and for each round of testing period. The read out emissions were then compared with each other.  The range of emissions for carbon monoxide (CO) were 1.45-2.75; 2.10-2.90; 2.00-2.62 and 3.0 % vol., for corncobs bio-ethanol/gasoline, softwood sawdust bio-ethanol/gasoline, hardwood sawdust bio-ethanol/gasoline and pure gasoline samples respectively while the emission ranges for hydrocarbon (HC) were 260-435; 328-360; 313-350 and 480 ppm for the same samples respectively. In the case of carbon dioxide (CO2), the samples gave 2.6-4.0; 2.2-3.9; 3.2-4.2 and 3.0 % vol. emissions. Thus all stakeholders considering the adoption of fuel blends in the country’s quest for increased energy mix can be properly guided on the pollutants associated with the investigated waste materials. This may help in the choice of appropriate waste to energy.