How to turn plastic waste into diesel fuel cheaply

[Jetijs]

Here are some new pictures:















My friend tells that so far it seems that a two step process might work better where in the first one we get the "soup" and on the second step we separate it into needed fractions. For the second step the following setup was used. The reactor and heater stayed the same, a new hole in the lid was made so that the "soup" could be poured in at controllable flow rate. The reactor was heated up to work temperature and a thin stream of "soup" was allowed to pour in the hot reactor. The result is instant flash boiling and turning to vapor. As long as the heat is maintained, this can be done continuously. The vapors then pass through three condensers stacked on top one another. The first one (the bottom one) is heavily insulated and has an outlet valve, the second one is left as is, and the last one is water cooled. They all have outlet valves. This was the first attempt without additional heating of the condensers, completely passive. Most of the liquid came out of the bottom condenser and was considerably more clear than the soup itself. Some of the liquid came of the second condenser and almost nothing cam from the water cooled condenser. We are waiting for a centrifugal filter to make the fuels clear and then we will send them for chemical analysis to see what exactly we get from such a setup.
Thanks,
Jetijs

[mbrownn]

Nice progress. I think you need a little more control of the temperature of the condensers, then with the cyclone you should get fuel clean enough to be put straight into an engine.

[Asad Farooqui]

Here are some new pictures:















My friend tells that so far it seems that a two step process might work better where in the first one we get the "soup" and on the second step we separate it into needed fractions. For the second step the following setup was used. The reactor and heater stayed the same, a new hole in the lid was made so that the "soup" could be poured in at controllable flow rate. The reactor was heated up to work temperature and a thin stream of "soup" was allowed to pour in the hot reactor. The result is instant flash boiling and turning to vapor. As long as the heat is maintained, this can be done continuously. The vapors then pass through three condensers stacked on top one another. The first one (the bottom one) is heavily insulated and has an outlet valve, the second one is left as is, and the last one is water cooled. They all have outlet valves. This was the first attempt without additional heating of the condensers, completely passive. Most of the liquid came out of the bottom condenser and was considerably more clear than the soup itself. Some of the liquid came of the second condenser and almost nothing cam from the water cooled condenser. We are waiting for a centrifugal filter to make the fuels clear and then we will send them for chemical analysis to see what exactly we get from such a setup.
Thanks,
Jetijs

Dear jetijs ;
Nice arrangement you made .
Kindly let us know, liquid Soup Reactor is maintained at what emperature ? My guess is 360 celcius as the diesel range starts at 350.
First out of three condensor U mentioned wraped in glasswool , WHAT temperature it should be maintained ? My guess is 160 celcius for the gasoline range .
Centrifugal filteration should be very effective , like to know the results .

keep doing the good work .....

Asad farooqui

[Jetijs]

There is a mistake in my previous post. My friend called and cleared that liquid fuel comes out of all the condensers, the lowest one produces thicker fractions similar to the soup itself, the second condenser gives up the diesel fraction and the upper one gives off what seems to be gasoline, the diesel fraction comes off about 5 times the volume of gasoline. The liquid stuff from the bottom condenser is poured back into the reactor for further thermal cracking.
Asad farooqui, I am not certain about the temperature, he used but it is probably somewhere between 360 and 420 degrees celsius

[mbrownn]

There is a mistake in my previous post. My friend called and cleared that liquid fuel comes out of all the condensers, the lowest one produces thicker fractions similar to the soup itself, the second condenser gives up the diesel fraction and the upper one gives off what seems to be gasoline, the diesel fraction comes off about 5 times the volume of gasoline. The liquid stuff from the bottom condenser is poured back into the reactor for further thermal cracking.
Asad farooqui, I am not certain about the temperature, he used but it is probably somewhere between 360 and 420 degrees celsius

Yes that is how I would do it. After the production of lighter fuel stops I would then close the feedback valve and collect the waxes tars and heavy oils.

On the unit I looked at, I believe that all the condensers were fed back to the reactor until everything got up to temperature.

[Jetijs]

mbrownn, yes, that is the next small step. The current unit is just a setup for testing out everything. And now we know that the bottom condenser content is not worth collecting and is better returned into reactor right away.

[dutchdivco]

Since reactor is pressurised

how you going to do that? Pump it in?For a small scale operation, seems like it might be most practical to just save it till the next time you load the reactor, and pour it on top of the shredded plastic.Obviously, a more efficient set up would have a way to get it back into the reactor, just not sure how?

BTW, I Loved the oil Co. logos, on the barrels. Just seems appropriate, somehow! Jim

[Jetijs]

Hi all
My friend warns not to collect the condensed fluids in plastic containers, as they are still very hot and if a plastic container is full and hot enough, it just collapses on itself and then there is fuel all over the place. Use metal buckets

dutchdivco, this setup currently works just as separator and separates fuels into their fractions, it does that very well. It could be that pouring the liquid waxes back into reactor has no point, because it seems that it does not crack into smaller fractions anymore. For that to happen much higher temperatures are needed, something around 700 degree celsius.

[mbrownn]

I think the feedback loops are just for the warm up of the plant.

Jetijs, This is off topic but I think this may be of interest to you and you may have missed it.

http://www.energeticforum.com/renewa...ath-motor.html

[wrtner]

Hi all
My friend warns not to collect the condensed fluids in plastic containers, as they are still very hot and if a plastic container is full and hot enough, it just collapses on itself and then there is fuel all over the place. Use metal buckets

..or even those big metal drums, three foot high and two foot diameter
that commercial users buy olive oil in. Recycling centres have them.

[dutchdivco]

jetsis

Your other thread, about running an ICE (Infernal Combustion Engine) on 'vaporised' fuels seems to keep getting off coarse, destracted by thoughts of Pougue type "Vaporiser carburetors", why they don't work, etc.
However, you said you MEANT running an ICE on fuels which had been 'cracked' into Hydrogen and Methane, and that you were specifically thinking of the fuels produced from this waste plastic. So, I'm bringing it back here, to avoid the confusion on the other thread.
Are you talking about seperating the product from the reactor, as described above, into 'diesel', 'gasoline', and propane/butane and THEN 'cracking' one or more of these fuels?
Seems to me, for a stationary device, you could just run the discharge pipe from your reactor to an automobile catalyctic converter.Run the 'exhaust' pipe from that to a propane carburetor on an ICE.Put a burner under the CC, and enclose it in an insulated box.Use the exhaust heat from the ICE as the heat to run the processor. Or, is this too simplistic?
For a car, as opposed to a stationary device, I could see an advantage in filling the tank with liquid fuel, then cracking it into hydrogen and methane, as needed to fuel the engine.
In any case, interested in hearing how you are planning on doing this, without getting distracted by Pougue type discussion.Also any progress on reactor? Jim

[keith20mm]

The process is really simple, it is similar to how alcohol is made. If you heat plastic<snip>
in the first run out comes mostly paraffin like liquid that solidifies at temperatures below 20 degrees celsius, the other clear sample is from the same paraffin that is gone through the process one more time. Will post more pictures and a video later.
Thanks,
Jetijs

May I ask you for a number of construction details, please?

The alumina bricks, would provide the outer edge length, and brick height, each brick?

The steel framework that sits inside the brickwork... is that made of round or flat steel?

What are the steel framework parts dimensions?

As to the nichrome elements, please elaborate on the method of connection from the nichrome and the power mains, whether the element coils are additionally held in place with high temp wires.

What is the diameter of your reactor vessel?

What is the length of your reactor vessel?

Thank you so very much for posting your design and result!

[hypnoeyes]

furnace

Hi all
must say that this has to be the best forums by half..well done to you all..
now down to details.i have one of these that i want to use for heat.i think all i have to do is change the temp sensor so temperature can be got to...i got this free so do any of you think that this will work and with what mods ??

[mbrownn]

Hi all
must say that this has to be the best forums by half..well done to you all..
now down to details.i have one of these that i want to use for heat.i think all i have to do is change the temp sensor so temperature can be got to...i got this free so do any of you think that this will work and with what mods ??

Do you have more info on it?

Drawings and specs?

[boywonder]

Thank you very much for sharing this information Jetijs. I was just wondering...would the first setup be better beacause you have no liquid waxes to deal with?