How to turn plastic waste into diesel fuel cheaply

[rozier56]

rozier56

Excaliber, attached is a drawing of my retort,reflux and the condenser.
Note the condenser is the same size of reflux outlet.I believe this system allows to much gas outflow through the condenser and results in too much outflow not condensed through the exhaust. This will affect through put and quality.
Noticed on your system that you have a lead pipe of 40mm, leading to the condenser.Surely this will slow down the gas outflow from reflux,allowing better condenser conditions.This will also create a little back pressure on the system enhancing the reflux performance.
What is the length of that pipe connecting the reflux to the condenser.
Note my reflux outlet is 80mm diam and so is the condenser inlet. I have 8 smaller pipes in the condenser for gas cooling.

[rozier56]

rozier56

Pics of rope?

[rozier56]

rozier56

Thanks Wheels, will take pic!s and submit.

[wheels]

Hi

Has anyone tried using Kaolinite Clays to clean their WMO derived fuels? Or dark colored fuels? I read an article which discussed the use of Sulphuric acid and Kaolinite clays to treat WMO. The results were amazing as the WMO is cleaned and turned back to its original transparent yellow-gold color.

Would this work with WMO derived fuels?

Clay works only as a fine filter. You need to push the Fuel through at an ultra high pressure. You will waste a lot of fuel int he clay and the fuel laden old clay will need to be disposed of at some stage.
I suggest the easiest way to clean the fuel is to use a centrifuge, which will remove particles down to 0.1 of a micron. Anything under 5 microns will pass through injectors OK. But particles darken the fuel color. Remember that oxidation also darkens the Fuel and you will not filter that out.
Zeolite can work OK'ish, but it must be "activated" first. To do this, it needs to be acid washed, dried and then heated to about 600deg. Do NOT do this inside in the Wife's oven. It gives off a white fume that sticks to the inside of the Oven.
How much to use? hard to answer as it depends on who dirty the fuel. Feed ot through till the color starts getting too dark. It is possible to continue reusing the Zeolite by Burning off the old fuel, washing it and acid washing and heating again.

[wheels]

I have access to large amounts of heavy duty rope. this rope appears to be plastic based. If it is nylon is this suitable for our process for diesel manufacturing?

Can you post a picture of the rope, because I used to work in the Rope industry and I might be able to identify it for you.
Or at the least, a better description of it would help.
Color is important. White can be either Polyester or Nylon. Polypropylene is often colored and feels waxy and the strands are often quite coarse.
Is it three strand twisted/braided, or does it have an inner core and outer jacket? Braided rope with an inner and outer can often have the inner as a very different material, with a polyester jacket as the wear cover. The inner can be Polyester, Kevlar or dyneema.
First simple test to do is, Does it sink or float in water. Nylon sinks. Polyester usually floats.
You cannot process Polyester or Kevlar.

[Excalibur]

Excallibur
How much Zeolite do you use per Litre of fuel to be cleaned?
Would like to try that.

Difficult to give a definitive answer as it's early days for trialing and testing. After getting a free trailer load of zeolite I made 3 adsorb stations in my fuel processing line. Part of using zeolite requires oven drying to get moisture out. More effective might be continuous trickle cycling of fuel across the zeolite.
My view is that heavily fouled/impregnated fuel will clog the zeolite immediately so the process is most suited as a "polisher". In this case I'm only talking of removing tiny micro particulate.

[Babataku]

Not either of those but I have used zeolite to clear up homemade diesel. It worked OK on fuel which wasn't too ugly. Fuel went from opaque to translucent. Pics on DIYdiesel blog, test equipment page.
Sulphuric acid was also used to clean up gum in gasoline from the cracking process in the early days if I recall.

Excallibur

How much Zeolite do you use per Litre of fuel to be cleaned?

Would like to try that.

[Excalibur]

Hi

Has anyone tried using Kaolinite Clays to clean their WMO derived fuels? Or dark colored fuels? I read an article which discussed the use of Sulphuric acid and Kaolinite clays to treat WMO. The results were amazing as the WMO is cleaned and turned back to its original transparent yellow-gold color.
Would this work with WMO derived fuels?

Not either of those but I have used zeolite to clear up homemade diesel. It worked OK on fuel which wasn't too ugly. Fuel went from opaque to translucent. Pics on DIYdiesel blog, test equipment page.
Sulphuric acid was also used to clean up gum in gasoline from the cracking process in the early days if I recall.

[Babataku]

Acid and Clays

Hi

Has anyone tried using Kaolinite Clays to clean their WMO derived fuels? Or dark colored fuels? I read an article which discussed the use of Sulphuric acid and Kaolinite clays to treat WMO. The results were amazing as the WMO is cleaned and turned back to its original transparent yellow-gold color.

Would this work with WMO derived fuels?

[rozier56]

rozier56

I have access to large amounts of heavy duty rope. this rope appears to be plastic based. If it is nylon is this suitable for our process for diesel manufacturing?

[Excalibur]

But what about the catalyst, is there again, I've tired of wax, you benefit Perlite in this regard ?, Thank you all

Deedoo, to help solve your wax problem, please post some clear photographs of your machine. Also dimensions, operating temperatures of retort, reflux etc. and burner/heating details. There are many on the forum with vast combined knowledge but without information we are only guessing.

[wheels]

Catalyst.
I need to go back a step.
We are playing in the World of Petrochemistry and causing a form of Chemical reaction. To explain, Fire is a Chemical reaction. The material burning is being consumed by rapid oxidation. Oxygen is reacting rapidly with the material being consumed and the result is Heat being produced. We have three components to the Reaction. Heat, Fuel and Oxygen. Take any one of those away and you cannot have Fire. Hence how a fire extinguisher works.
In our case, we are the ones providing the Heat energy and we are simply heating the plastic to where the Hydrocarbons the plastic is made up from are released and then those chains, via being "excited" by the heat energy, break apart to create shorter chains.
The term Hydrocarbon, comes from what these chains are made up from. Hydrogen and Carbon Molecules bonded together in lengths. When they are heated, they are caused to vibrate and that vibration can cause them to eventually break apart into two shorter chains. The shorter chain requires even more energy to break again, so breaking by heat tends to be a little more precise in what they break into, although the breaking point can be a little more random. It is however, somewhere towards the middle of the chain. Thus a long chain can be broken somewhat into a chain ruffly half it's length.
Another way to break the Chains is to force them to break, by removing a Molecule that joins the chains together. In this way, we are using something to cause them to break, which is normally a chemical reaction. It s possible to drop a Chemical into the Hydrocarbon mix and cause them to break at a specific place. But that is hard to do. So an easy way of doing it, is to use a Catalyst. A catalyst works on a two step process. Firstly, it gives up a little of itself to cause the reaction. In our case, the Hydrocarbon chain is broken by an Electron attracting an electron in the bonding molecule and thus the molecule can no longer hold the chain together. The second part of the process is that the electron is then taken back by the Parent catalyst material, called Regeneration and is thus the Catalyst is not consumed. But for the Catalyst to work, we need to provide the heat energy to make it work.
Another aspect of a Catalyst is what material causes the Hydrocarbon to break where we want it to. In our case, a form of Zelolite tends to be best choice. There several different types of Zeolite by the way. They all work, but some work better than others. The Hydrocarbons need to flow over or through the Zeolite particals and the temperature needs to be high, well over 400 degree to operate. The problem with using a Catalyst is that it causes the Hydrocarbon chain to break into three parts. It is far more accurate, because it tends to break in the same place for all Chains. but the three parts are not always wanted. Usually only one part is wanted and the other two shorter parts tend to be open chains. That means they want to grab another molecule to close the chain and that tends to be Oxygen. This causes Oxygenation of the captured liquid.
The design of the catalyst chamber, how the Vapor is moved through the material, the heat etc etc are all important to how well it works. So while ot is likely doing something, it may not be doing it well and so it is not as easy as it sounds.
I hope that helps.

[wheels]

But what about the catalyst, is there again, I've tired of wax, you benefit Perlite in this regard ?, Thank you all

Wax can be caused by several things.
First of all, the plastic itself. Wax is produced from Polyethylene. The simplest fix, to process only Polypropylene. If that is not possible, then try temperature. Wax is found in a narrow band of the hydrocarbon range produced. What range of Hydrocarbons your plant produces is firstly related to Temperature and Time. Time cannot be controlled so easily, so that leaves Temperature. You need to experiment with Temperature. Most lower the temperature, but that may not be the answer. So also try raising it. As both Temperature and Time are related the Hydrocarbon produced, either raising or lowering will alter the time and thus the cracking and thus the range.
Catalyst. This is the hardest part to play with. A Catalyst causes a Chemical reaction, but it does not get consumed in the process.
Actually, this is a complicated and important subject and I shall post a separate post following this one, to keep the subject separate and easy to spot.

[dedooo]

But what about the catalyst, is there again, I've tired of wax, you benefit Perlite in this regard ?, Thank you all

[wheels]

When running plastics{pe +pp} at temps around 300*c we are experiencing the smell of HCL fumes in the air, out the exhaust pipe. When the gas is burnt off too atmosphere they obviously disappear. We are not running the gas through water trap as in the passed.The water traps used, are they static vessels that are circulated with water constantly,or static vessels that you change the water daily?

You can do either with the water. For most, just static if fine.
I am not sure how you would smell HCL. HCL is the gas form of Hydrochloric Acid and you would choke rather than smell anything. It is highly dangerous and can burn your skin, eyes and throat if you inhale it. It will also eat your retort vessel quickly. HCL at 300deg is serious to Metal.
HCL comes from plastics that contain Chlorine. That is PVC plastics. PVC is used for electrical cable insulation for instance. So I would check that your Plastic stock is pure PP/PE.
To test of Acid is present, get yourself a cheap and swimming pool test kit. It is simply some little strips of Litmus paper. Test the water before use to get a bench mark and then after the process and see how strong an acid the water has become. The water will take out most of the HCL if it is present.