How to turn plastic waste into diesel fuel cheaply

[mercedes 308]

Aston university does pyrolysis

Seems like Aston university is getting in on the act.
Pyrolysis

Scientists turn rubbish into oil & gas - full report by Mark Gough on Vimeo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...&v=-TOMiGLjlac
According to the news. They want to build a small unit, to be used in the home.

[Hoddamdg11]

Condensers

waterboost - the shroud prevents the movement of a spanner or stillsons and I'm worried about the the temperature when trying to cut it off.

[waterboost]

Gas Bottles

1) Open the tap...
2) let it empty...
3) remove valve with a spanner
4) fill with water, rinse and repeat

JOB DONE

If you are going to cut one, leave the water inside

[Hoddamdg11]

Condensers

I've been through all 91 pages but haven't found any advice on safely removing LPG bottle valves. Lots of people are using them, so there must be a safe way.
Thanks in advance.

[mercedes 308]

EFuel100, Earth's First Home Ethanol System, a Product of E-Fuel Corporation

look what i found today surfing the net. And it seems less expensive than this blest company Japanese one.

It's not a pyrolysis unit. It relies on bacteria to break down sugars, and produce ethanol.
Also seems like a scam setup, but could be real.

Compatible with numerous organic fuel materials for use as feedstock, including liquids rich in sugar, discarded beverages with residual sugar and/or
alcohol, fermentable liquids, cellulose material and algae.

E-Fuel Global Network
The E-Fuel Global Network (EGN) is a necessary and important component to the operation and monitoring of the MicroFueler. The EGN maintains a communications link with all MicroFueler worldwide, 24x7, checking vital statistics, operating norms, as well as billing and reporting for customers. In the event the EGN identifies a condition which requires attention, a notification is sent to the responsible party (dealer, distributor, end user, etc.). The
EGN continues to monitor notifications to insure timely follow-up so as to insure uninterrupted availability of E-Fuell100 to the
consumer. The EGN may be accessed on the internet through its Dashboard interface. Customers may log into their account at the
E-Fuel web site (EFuel100, Earth's First Home Ethanol System, a Product of E-Fuel Corporation)
and view the Dashboard for each of their MicroFuelers. Data available includes fuel available, system status, event log, account information, etc. The
EGN is by subscription. The first year is provided at no cost with the purchase of a MicroFueler. Subsequent years are priced at
$9.95 billed monthly or $99.95 annually in advance.

[Excalibur]

Kris
Looks like an OK place to start. I went big on the connecting pipe between because I reasoned that I could always drop in a spigot-reducer to narrow the passage should it prove necessary, but I couldn't go the other way,,, bigger.
Agreed, it's very much a "try it and see" type of thing. The hope is that you'll be within the ballpark and with a few tweaks be good.
My new retort isn't ready yet but the dimensions are on my blog for any comparison. Am aiming for first testing by 1 Sept.

[kris 8]

reflux vessal

hello its amazing how far this thread has come in the advancement of these
techniques
im determined to get my plant up and running
to which end after reading the posts about plugging pipes im upping the size of the pipe from the retort to 2inches,
my question is what size reflux vessel would be good i have some pipe of about 6inches by 29inches would this be good. the retort is a 46kg lpg bottle. im thinking of making the pipe between the two about 18inches i understand it is trial and error and ill have to play with insulation but do these sizes seem about right

regards kris

[lowriderzzz]

EFuel100, Earth's First Home Ethanol System, a Product of E-Fuel Corporation

look what i found today surfing the net. And it seems less expensive than this blest company Japanese one.

[imakebiodiesel]

My catalyst is only gas phase. Liquid phase catalysts do work but larger quantities are needed. The catalyst is held in the reflux column.

mJohnston1, Im glad my suggestion has worked. As you can see this method can be developed to produce a catalyst with a very specific profile. I would suggest you keep meticulous records of each batch with details of mixtures, temperatures, times, yields etc so that you can detect even small improvements. Also avoid any major changes to your apparatus while you are developing a catalyst.

The brown colour is most likely oxidation caused by the presence of unsaturated hydrocarbons ( alkenes) This can be confirmed by testing with either bromine water or potassium permanganate. ( check wikipedia). The double carbon to carbon bonds in alkenes are unstable and will react with oxygen very quickly. A better catalyst will reduce this effect.
Antioxidants can be used to combat this effect but they are a bit like bolting the stable door after the horse is gone.

[mjohnson1]

I just finished up my latest catalyst test and I obtained 85.5% conversion by weight. I haven't had a chance to boil off the various fractions in my kiln yet but i'll post the results when it's completed.

For this test I followed imakebiodiesel's advice and mixed some of my high activity catalyst with some low activity catalyst. This seemed to do the trick as my conversion rate went up considerably and there were still no waxes. It smelled strongly of gasoline odors where as my earlier tests didn't have as strong of smell. In addition, the liquid output was cleared and had a green/brown tint to it while the other test had a orange/brown color.

Does anyone know what causes the color changes of the fuels?

[sunilkm153]

90% recovery as fuels

mjohnson1, as you have probably worked out yourself you have a bad case of overcracking.
My guess is that you are using a very active catalyst such as zeolite or something similar. This produces a very high proportion of the more volatile fractions. It also has a very short working life before it cokes up which would explain the low total conversion ratio.
A smaller amount of your active catalyst mixed with a slower, clay type catalyst might just do the trick.

I am at present submitting a sample of my kerosene for testing to British Standards. I will know in a few weeks whether my fuel is up to the standard of commercial kerosene. Im fairly confident that it will pass on specific gravity, flash point, viscosity, smoke point and distillation test as can test for these myself. It may fail on colour as my fuel is not as pale as commercial kerosene.

In my latest batches in my new processor I am getting 90% conversion. The liquid output is 92% kerosene, 8% light naphtha.
The 10% residue is a black coloured paraffin wax. Both the light naphtha and the paraffin wax are saleable products used in various industrial processes.

Just a note on the use of the word gasoline or petrol to describe the light fractions derived from this process. Calling it gasoline will encourage beginners to put this fraction into the fuel tanks of their vehicles without further processing which will quickly do damage. Strictly speaking this fraction should be called naphtha. Naphtha needs to be upgraded, usually by hydrocracking to make it into gasoline. Naphtha itself is low grade, low octane fuel that has almost no lubrication or detergent qualities. From my own tests up to 25% naphtha can be added to high octane unleaded gasoline without risk of damage to the engine but no more.

dear IMBD

very efficient conversion rates compareable to commercial processors , are you using catalyst in both liquid phase and vapour phase like asad farroqui or simply in vapour phase only and if it is in vapour phase only whether there should be seperate reflux chamber and catalyst chamber or simply as you mentioned earlier on the top side inside reflux chamber with lower portion of reflux packed with ss wool.

thanks

[lowriderzzz]

I agree completely with excalibur, the still method is wasteful of energy and time. I only use it because I already have it and because at the early stages of my research I wanted to be able to analyse the different fractions.
Serial condensers leading away from the reflux column is the best way to separate the various fractions. When designing condensers you must include a way of controlling the temperature to get the fraction you want. There are many ways to do that, electric band heaters , adding and taking off layers of insulation, and lengthening and shortening the pipes connecting the condensers all work.
The information about bubblers and flashback arrestors is already in the thread, and although I appreciate that it can be a tedious exercise finding it if we start to repeat information the thread will be even longer and more difficult to digest.
Ideally this topic could be divided into a dozen separate threads for discussion but I dont know if the moderators are interested or willing to do this.

Agree with that. lucky there is a easy and efficient way to find what you need in the thread using the advanced search. So for instance type it keywords "bubble+design" (without the "" and +) and will show you all topics contain the words blubber and design.

Also can search for posts by members - type imakebiodisel in the look for member field and will find only your posts.

I only tell this just in case you don't know it.

[imakebiodiesel]

I agree completely with excalibur, the still method is wasteful of energy and time. I only use it because I already have it and because at the early stages of my research I wanted to be able to analyse the different fractions.
Serial condensers leading away from the reflux column is the best way to separate the various fractions. When designing condensers you must include a way of controlling the temperature to get the fraction you want. There are many ways to do that, electric band heaters , adding and taking off layers of insulation, and lengthening and shortening the pipes connecting the condensers all work.
The information about bubblers and flashback arrestors is already in the thread, and although I appreciate that it can be a tedious exercise finding it if we start to repeat information the thread will be even longer and more difficult to digest.
Ideally this topic could be divided into a dozen separate threads for discussion but I dont know if the moderators are interested or willing to do this.

[Excalibur]

So you re heat the produced liquid again to 85C and vaporize it and then liquidize once again ?

Do you only do this for kerosine ? If I aim for making diesel should this process be necessary ? Thanks

Ideally you would separate the fractions on the fly as I'm sure IMBD will do once he gets the equipment set up.
Your set up will vary from IMBD's firstly because your reflux temperature will be targeted to diesel as the heaviest fraction produced. The first condenser downstream will be the diesel condenser into which all the fractions produced will drop into. The trick to separating those lighter fractions from the diesel is to keep the diesel at a temperature which will boil them off and condense in the next condenser downstream. You do the same trick to separate each subsequent fraction as or if you require them separated.
Hope this helps. It can take time to grasp the concept.

[sunilkm153]

Negative Pressure Device

There is no doubt that the end of a run is the riskiest time and special precautions need to be taken until the whole system cools down.
A good flashback arrestor is the jet used in an ordinary gas burner ring. This tiny opening will prevent air and flame moving backwards right down to near zero pressure. But that does not mean I am going to do without both a bubbler and a stainless steel wool arrestor.

After going through page no 72 to 75 I observed there is great need for good negative pressure device also I read plenty of very good discussion from our fellow members but still it is difficult to understand the true concept behind the whole exercise , can any one and specially IMBD OR PLASTICTRIX TO EXPLAIN THE BUBBLER AND STEEL WOOL ARRESTOR ALONG WITH THEIR CONSTRUCTION
thanks