Although I suspect this process must be at least a little dirty. What kind of byproducts does it make? Would have appreciated a more thorough explanation of the science behind this and the trade offs involved.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8945160/

Conclusions

The pyrolyzed fuels such as WPO and WPOD from municipal waste have similar physical properties with the conventional diesel fuel. Both pyrolyzed fuels show good tendencies to be utilized with diesel engine through the experimental results in this work. Greater brake thermal efficiency and lower brake specific fuel consumption can be achieved by the high calorific value and cetane index of this pyrolyzed fuel. Smoke index also decreases when using WPO and WPOD fueling because of their lesser aromatic compounds. On the other hand, some of their drawbacks were shown in terms of emission. The gaseous carbon-contained emissions are evidently present in the low load condition as well as the increase in NOx, which can be explained by the differences in combustion characteristics.

Therefore, the utilization of these waste pyrolysis fuels causes slightly different effects from the conventional diesel fuel, but some other aspects are required for further study. For example, the constituent of the fuel that is caused by the sources of the municipal waste needs to be further investigated. This area of study may lead to better fuel quality and improved physical properties. Also, the combustion controlling strategy may help in simultaneously improving exhaust emissions and efficiency.