How to turn plastic waste into diesel fuel cheaply

[res0wc18]

WVO/ veggie oil to gasoline alternative

so this may sound crazy but its fact so please take it seriously. and i realize this is a little off topic but i was told to ask here.

here is my original thread http://www.energeticforum.com/renewa...tml#post237032

When i was a kid the local public station (KCTS Seattle) had one of these science for kids/teens shows on and i cannot recall what the heck it was called but anyways they took brand new veggie oil of the store shelf and made "an emergency gasoline alternative" by blending it in a blender with some common chemicals and then proceeded to pour it in an fj62 land cruiser and it ran without issue!


For the life of me i cannot find this video anywhere on the net etc. But me and my cousin distinctly remember it when we were kids watching it.

Anyone have an idea what im talking about?

[Excalibur]

My first thought was: surely you mean a diesel engine running on svo?... Then I read your original thread.

Perhaps the most famous televised homebrew svo concoction is this Top Gear video of 6 years ago. I see it has over a million views now.
Top Gear - Vegetable oil for your volvo diesel - BBC - YouTube

In an emergency situation normal standards are 'out the window'. Only thing that matters is whether it runs and can an emergency be averted.
If an engine was started and warmed up, then a much lower fuel could be substituted. For a few weeks I ran a vehicle on kerosene after it was hot. There was a lot of smoke and power was crap but it went.
Another example is that an engine will run on stale gasoline but it won't start on it.

I hope you find the video. It would be interesting!

[jonathan]

retort sealant

l read about copper catalyst or piping is not good for pyrolysis system but did you thing for retort copper gasket is the same proplem? thanks

[Excalibur]

There's quite a bit of talk about the use of copper on this thread with opinions varying. I have used it in the condensers without apparent issue.
Currently I'm fitting my new reflux with a copper gasket plus my thermocouples have copper washers, one of which is on the retort hatch.
I will be advising if any of these copper seals fail.

Note that copper is estimated to anneal between 426'c and 650'c.

Should copper gasket prove effective, it will be a cheap solution as it can be re-used by annealing with a propane torch, oxy torch or even stove top, etc.
Quenching is optional. Older air-cooled motorcycle engines typically had solid copper head gaskets but we'll see if it works with retort temperatures.

[Beyond Biodiesel]

My first thought was: surely you mean a diesel engine running on svo?... Then I read your original thread.

There is simply no way to convert vegetable oil to gasoline without cracking it, so pursuing it is going to be as fruitless as trying to find the "magic pills" that are used to convert a tank full of water into gasoline.

Perhaps the most famous televised homebrew svo concoction is this Top Gear video of 6 years ago. I see it has over a million views now.
Top Gear - Vegetable oil for your volvo diesel - BBC - YouTube

Thanks for the link, Excalibur. I do happen to disagree with the proposed blend of blending only 3ml of non-kerosene into 97ml of vegetable oil to make it work as well as diesel. I am surprised it even got the engine started, but it does show that blending light fractions with heavy fractions certainly works for making a perfectly functional diesel fuel. My preference, as you know, is 20% gasoline (petrol) to 80% WVO. I have been running it on my diesel engine for 6.5 years.

In an emergency situation normal standards are 'out the window'. Only thing that matters is whether it runs and can an emergency be averted.
If an engine was started and warmed up, then a much lower fuel could be substituted. For a few weeks I ran a vehicle on kerosene after it was hot. There was a lot of smoke and power was crap but it went.
Another example is that an engine will run on stale gasoline but it won't start on it.

I hope you find the video. It would be interesting!

You did not say, but my guess is you are speaking about running a gasoline engine on stale gasoline (petrol) or kerosene, if the engine is hot to start with. This suggests that if one had access to cheap or free stale gasoline (petrol) or kerosene, then one could install a 2-tank-heated fuel system on a gasoline engine to get it to run on those marginal fuels, starting the engine on good gasoline, then switching over to kerosene once the engine is warmed up.

[jonathan]

retort

thanks excalibur l will try find a shop to buy copper l will try ebay thanks all of you

[sunilkm153]

white spirit or high spirit

Hello everbody .
NO NEWS is not a good news .

There is a complete silence at the forum , its very bad . I would request the community that We should keep it alive .

Anyway Nowadays i was experimenting with a different liquid product made from waste Plastic .
Following is its detail, In my next message I will explain how I did it .


White spirit
[CAS 64475-85-0][1][2][3], also known as Mineral spirits. It is a paraffin-derived clear, transparent liquid which is a common organic solvent used in painting and decorating.
In 1924, an Atlanta dry cleaner named W. J. Stoddard worked with Lloyd E. Jackson of the Mellon Research Institute to develop specifications for a less volatile dry cleaning solvent as an alternative to more volatile petroleum solvents. Dry cleaners began using it in 1928 and it was the predominant dry cleaning solvent in the United States from the late 1920s until the late 1950s.

It is a mixture of aliphatic and alicyclic C7 to C12 hydrocarbons with a maximum content of 25% of C7 to C12 aromatic hydrocarbons.
Initial boiling point of 149 °F (65 °C),
Dry point of approximately 156 °F (69 °C),
Specific mass of 0.7 g/cc.


White spirit is used as an extraction solvent, as a cleaning solvent, as a degreasing solvent and as a solvent in aerosols, paints, wood preservatives, lacquers, varnishes, and asphalt products.

In western Europe about 60% of the total white spirit consumption is used in paints, lacquers and varnishes. White spirit is the most widely used solvent in the paint industry. In households, white spirit is commonly used to clean paint brushes after decorating. Its paint thinning properties enable brushes to be cleaned (by preventing the paint from hardening and ruining the bristles), enabling them to be reused.

The best thing about White spirit is that there is no restriction of producing it in my country .
Hopefully same would be the case in other countries also .

Love U all .

dear friend asad
I am from India & i recently joined the forum few days back I feel the forum escorted by jetijs , imakebiodiesel ,excalibre ,you and many other friends is an wonderful yet practicle one . And after going through discussion pages on it I feel you are a high spirited fighter and that's why I called it high spirit instead of white spirit as on this page of discission you mentioned about white spirit please explain the process in detail along with what percentage of white spirit you recovered from 1 kg of mixed plastic waste is the process commercially viable .

[imakebiodiesel]

I am in contact with Asad by email but unfortunately his login to this forum has been blocked for some time. His good sense and wide knowlege is much missed.
I have produced some white spirit from plastic pyrolysis. As you may already know I take all of my fuel in one mixture and separate it later. I heat the mixture up to 90C and hold it there until the output from the still almost stops. This very light fraction is light naphtha. ( can be sold as cigarette lighter fuel).
I then increase the still temperature to 215C and hold it there until the output almost stops. This fraction is White Spirit. It contains mostly C7 to C12 alkanes.
As Asad mentioned there are almost no restrictions on producing, marketing and transporting White Spirits in most countries and it sells for considerably more than motor or heating fuel.

[lowriderzzz]

I am in contact with Asad by email but unfortunately his login to this forum has been blocked for some time. His good sense and wide knowlege is much missed.
I have produced some white spirit from plastic pyrolysis. As you may already know I take all of my fuel in one mixture and separate it later. I heat the mixture up to 90C and hold it there until the output from the still almost stops. This very light fraction is light naphtha. ( can be sold as cigarette lighter fuel).
I then increase the still temperature to 215C and hold it there until the output almost stops. This fraction is White Spirit. It contains mostly C7 to C12 alkanes.
As Asad mentioned there are almost no restrictions on producing, marketing and transporting White Spirits in most countries and it sells for considerably more than motor or heating fuel.

Hi IMBD/John. One quick question. What do you mean by heating still. You talk all the plastic fuel you got and bring it back in the retort for reheating ?

Thanks

[Excalibur]

You did not say, but my guess is you are speaking about running a gasoline engine on stale gasoline (petrol) or kerosene, if the engine is hot to start with. This suggests that if one had access to cheap or free stale gasoline (petrol) or kerosene, then one could install a 2-tank-heated fuel system on a gasoline engine to get it to run on those marginal fuels, starting the engine on good gasoline, then switching over to kerosene once the engine is warmed up.

Yes, sorry I didn't clarify the engine type in my post. I was referring to a gasoline engine and in my case the vehicle was a Morris Commercial . This had a side valve 4 cylinder engine and was slow with a top speed of maybe 50mph. Also very hungry on the fuel.
Separate tanks were installed and a valve plumbed in to swap fuel feed for the carburetor. The kero fuel line was wound around the exhaust for preheating. Extra head gaskets were fitted to lower the compression. Running required that the engine be started on gasoline, then swapped to kero. Finally the engine needed to be run on gasoline before shutdown to ensure the next restart. This was about 1975 ~76 when kero was cheaper than gasoline. Now kero is a hideous price, more expensive than gasoline and in addition all the kero bowsers have disappeared from gas stations.

[Ron Hammar]

thanks excalibur l will try find a shop to buy copper l will try ebay thanks all of you

Go to a scrape yard. I just got a roll of copper tin about 14" wide and about 8lb for $5.00 a pound.

[imakebiodiesel]

My typical output is 92% kerosene and 8% light naphtha. At present I collect all of it in one condenser and then put it into a simple still with a short reflux column. I raise the temperature up to 85C and hold it there for about 15-20 minutes. This distills all of the light naphtha and leaves a kerosene fuel with a flash point of 40C, SG .775 and viscosity of 23mm/s. this is a close match for commercial kerosene.
In a processor I am planning I will incorporate a naphtha condenser that will do this job straight from the retort.

[CaptainCook]

First of all, wow - that's impressive and I want to try it! Thnak you for sharing.

Do you have to separate the different kinds of material or do you think you could put shredded plastic, tires and charcoal together?

[Beyond Biodiesel]

My typical output is 92% kerosene and 8% light naphtha. At present I collect all of it in one condenser and then put it into a simple still with a short reflux column. I raise the temperature up to 85C and hold it there for about 15-20 minutes. This distills all of the light naphtha and leaves a kerosene fuel with a flash point of 40C, SG .775 and viscosity of 23mm/s. this is a close match for commercial kerosene.
In a processor I am planning I will incorporate a naphtha condenser that will do this job straight from the retort.

I noticed that the OP fractionated his fluid stream, which seemed to make a lot of sense to me, as oil refineries work this way, and I used to work at one. So, I built a series of heated condensers at the cuts 300c, 200c, 100c, then cooled condensers at 25c and 0c.

I have spent a year fine tuning my series of condensers and get a fairly good product. Fractionating on the fly, as I call it, saves me time and energy, as my pyrolysis unit is fully solar powered, so it is best to get the entire run completed before I lose solar gain at the end of the day.

Right now I am still only distilling WMO, but once I have the WMO distillation system fully debugged, then I plan to use it as the down stream system for a plastics pyrolysis unit, and a wood gas extractor to fractionate the output from the plastics pyrolysis unit and the wood gas extractor. When it is all in place I should be able to make fuel out of nearly anything.

[imakebiodiesel]

captn Cook, in theory it is possible to pyrolyse different materials in one retort and in some cases there are advantages. For instance co cracking rubber crumb with wmo improves the heat penetration and distribution. But with plastics I would not mix other materials. Pyrolysing plastics is a very clean process leaving a non toxic, valuable byproduct. If you mix in other stuff your residue will be dirty and toxic and your fuel is likely to be contaminated as well.

IMB Biodiesel Processors