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Considerable amounts (400 ∼ 600 thousand tons) of waste vegetable oil in Japan are still flushed down the drain every year. Utilization of waste vegetable oil for diesel fuel leads to two advantages for environmental protection, to reduce CO2 emission from engines and to avoid water pollution of rivers. In this study, combustion characteristics of waste vegetable oil methyl ester (WME) are investigated in detail by not only engine test run but also observation of burning flames in a visual engine. As results indicate, WME shows rather better combustion state in the visual engine and lower smoke emission from a high-speed DI test engine than gas oil. Moreover, by emulsifying WME with water, further improvement of combustion and more than 18 % reduction of NOx emission is carried out.

In Japan, about 750 million liters of lubricating oil from automobiles and marine engines become waste per year. The authors propose a plan to convert such used lubricating oil (ULO) to effective energy. In detail, some special diesel generator plants should be built and ULO should be burned there after some process. This plan has at least two advantages, i.e. to save the petroleum energy and to avoid the environmental pollution. Aim of this study is to develop the way to utilize ULO for diesel fuel at such a generator plant. Combustion characteristics of ULO are in detail investigated by observation of burning flames in a visual engine and by engine test run. As results of comparison between ULO and heavy fuel oil (HFO), ULO shows rather better ignition quality in the visual engine and lower smoke emission from the running test engine than HFO.

Under the concern for the global environmental protection, recycle has also been remarked to be established. A lot of research and technology development have also been carried out for recycle on the world wide bases. Regarding the automotive recycle, although metals, especially steel, has already been collected and recycled as the steel scrap, other materials such as plastics and catalyst platinum are considered to be recycled as well. As a part of the automotive plastic recycle, “With paint recycle technology” for “In line painted Noryl GTX6011 bumper which is made of PPE/PA alloy by GE Plastics has been achieved by Nissan Shatai Co and GE Plastics. “With paint” recycle is a recycle of the painted plastic automotive parts for the painted parts without removing of the paint. Conventionally, paint removal has been considered to be inevitable in the painted polyolefinic bumper recycle.

Initial investigations of a new type of high energy ignitor for I.C. engines are described. The ignitor is a miniaturized railgun, or “railplug.” The railplug produces a relatively large mass of high velocity plasma. These characteristics may be advantageous for initiating combustion in a number of different applications. Unlike a plasma jet ignitor, the railplug plasma is driven not only by thermodynamic expansion, but by electromagnetic forces as well. Four experimental railplug designs were evaluated using schlieren and shadowgraphy visualization to examine plasma movement and shape. Railplug current and voltage were also measured. One railplug consisting of two unenclosed parallel rails was used to demonstrate the electromagnetically induced motion of the plasma at ambient conditions. Schlieren photos showed that the plasma plume moves strongly in the direction of the electromagnetic Lorentz forces.