How to turn plastic waste into diesel fuel cheaply

[greasolution]

Drum design?

What are the drawbacks to the drum design with the caged reactor vessel? I am guessing it is too slow of a process, the output is too low, and a search is on for a 'self cleaning' design... ?

Here is a video that may have some good design elements.

YouTube - ‪Plastic waste into Diesel fuel production, Plastic Depolarisation Unit PDU‬‏

[keith20mm]

What are the drawbacks to the drum design with the caged reactor vessel? I am guessing it is too slow of a process, the output is too low, and a search is on for a 'self cleaning' design... ?

Here is a video that may have some good design elements.

YouTube - ‪Plastic waste into Diesel fuel production, Plastic Depolarisation Unit PDU‬‏

Clearly, from all in this thread, the bottom line is determined on the intended purpose of the derived liquids or gases.

Consider the purpose of liquid (or gas) suitable for a land-based engine-powered generator. The main design is a perfect setup for providing all the liquid input to the generator. You can scale the solid input/liquid output, as needed. You can adjust the post-vaporized temperature upward, to produce only gas. You can adjust the post-vaporized temperature downward, to produce (mostly) only liquids, suitable for the engine you have on hand.

Now consider the purpose of a mobile power plant, and, again, depending on your needs, and materials for input, consider all mentioned in this thread, and consider devising methods of using the generated liquids or gases in a mobile, on-demand, system, provided the solid, plastic, input materials.

Your personal needs will lead you to the selection of the setup and process that will provide for your needs.

[silver]

Hi all thanks for the advice. I was thinking whether the liquid fuel and gas ratio will be altered if I will be raising the temp of the kiln to more than 420, may be up to 800 degrees. The reason is this. I want to direct the exhaust fumes from auto mobile engine into the kiln. And we know the temp of the exhaust will be around 800 to 900 degrees. If the temp is increased will I be getting less liquid and more gas?

Also I`m very much in doubt about the size of the condenser. I think the bigger the condenser the better it will aid in condensing of the liquid or in other words more liquid production? no? I`m sorry if I`m confusing you all.

[Asad Farooqui]

Hi all thanks for the advice. I was thinking whether the liquid fuel and gas ratio will be altered if I will be raising the temp of the kiln to more than 420, may be up to 800 degrees.

Definetly, if you raise the temperature to 700-800 celsius the major yield would be of C1-4 type vapors which will remain in gaseous form .

This is the most common method of converting used tyres/plastic to combustible gaseous form .

[Insearch]

Optimum Design

Dear Jetijs and all members,
Thanks a lot for the excellent post to convert waste plastic into valuable fuel.
I am new to the forum. Since the time I came accross this topic, I am very much interested to make my own fuel.
I have read all the posts 2/3 times but unfortunitly everytime I could not reach to any conclusion regarding the design and concept that should be considered.
There are lot of desing and factors that are discussed in the topic, but unfortunitly non of it are concluded except the original design proposed by Mr. Jetijs.
I appriciate everyone who are trying hard in valve addition to the original concept, but still most of the topics are incomplete.
I would personally request to everyone specially Mr. Jetijs to please suggest
some solid final design, procedure and additives, catalytes that should be used, so as to get clean Diesel that can be used in Automobile or for Industrial heating application.

[white8]

Polystyrene (styrofoam) seems to be quite difficult to get rid of around here so it should be an easy to acquire feedstock. Since it doesn't seem to be very dense will it require a significantly larger volume to produce the same amount of fuel as something denser such as hdpe? Also, how bad is the smell of the process? I live in a residential area and have neighbors that will complain if they smell it.

[imakebiodiesel]

Hi to Jetijs and everyone else,
I am new to this forum so I will tell you something about myself. I have been making all of my own fuel for four years now, mostly biodiesel from waste vegetable oil but also some bioethanol from cheese whey and waste bread.
I built my own processor and I have also designed and built my own burner/ boiler to heat my home with waste veg oil.
I am also an organic gardener and grow most of my families food.
My son and I have done some small scale experiments with waste plastic and have had encouraging results. We found, just like you that polyethylene yields a heavy wax and that polypropylene was much better for liquid fuel
I would like to say that your design of processor is far better than our small unit and we are going to build one like it this summer.
In this country waste shredded plastic is quite expensive so I am proposing to set up a small collection service. Every year garden centres and nurseries throw out thousands of used flower pots which are made of pp. They would be quite happy to have someone come and take them away once a month.
I have some questions, doesnt everybody?
In your posts you have said that if you have 3 condensers the first should be heated, the second cooled by air and the third, if necessary, water cooled. Could the residual gas be used to heat the first condenser? Would it come at the right time and in enough quantity.
I notice that you have a high loop of pipe after the condenser and before the bubbler. Is this to prevent the possibility of water being sucked back into the hot processor as it cools dowm?
Have you had any success with catalysts yet. We have tried several but none seem to make any difference.
Thanks for all the invaluable information and for your patience.

[mbrownn]

I haven't built my unit yet but I intend to mount the first condenser above the reactor vessel so that it will use waste heat from the reactor. I am going to use kerosene burners to heat the reactor as well as electricity so i will be using fuel directly. this may be more efficient if I get it right.

It would be good practice to have some sort of loop or chamber that can hold water sucked back from the bubbler during cooldown.

[noonya]

Polystyrene (styrofoam) seems to be quite difficult to get rid of around here so it should be an easy to acquire feedstock. Since it doesn't seem to be very dense will it require a significantly larger volume to produce the same amount of fuel as something denser such as hdpe? Also, how bad is the smell of the process? I live in a residential area and have neighbors that will complain if they smell it.

I noticed that when you pour gasoline on Polystyrene it turns into a jelly. You can use that method to load it into a reactor in a semi-liquid form.

[imakebiodiesel] I also live in a country where shredded plastic is extremely expensive. So i buy it from waste collector in unshredded form. Could someone on this forum be having a used plastic shredder that i can buy? Chopping it into pieces with a machete is extremely inefficient. Any ideas?

[imakebiodiesel]

Using a kerosene burner makes sense because it will make the system self sustaining and would be less expensive to build. Second hand burners can be picked up cheaply.
However I would like to replicate Jets setup as closely as possible first. The electric heating system provides a very uniform and controllable heat which is very important. Also I have a friend who is a potter and is experienced at building kilns of this type.
In my own very basic setup the reactor was heated by a propane flame. One problem was that the heat was very intense low down near the flame while, despite a lot of insulation, it was much cooler high up where i had placed the temperature probe. This gave me a false reading and produced too much gas and not enough liquid fuel.

[Asad Farooqui]

waste PP- bags + WMO mixture

[imakebiodiesel] I also live in a country where shredded plastic is extremely expensive. Any new ideas?

Hello everybody .
Waste PP-bags are everywhere used for packing sugar/salt/cement/urea etc etc.
I have tried a mixture of waste PP-bags + WMO (in a ratio of 75/25).

First heat ONLY the WMO to about 160 celsius & than add PP-bags which will melt quickly as the M.P of PP is 160 celsius .
Close the lid of your reactor & fully heat upto 400 celsius to collect all the vapours till the end .

Plastics are very BAD conductors .
The reason for First heating a liquid is that it will quickly fillup the gaps b/w the plastic & heat transfer very quickly .

The resultant fuel's viscosity is quite close to standard gasoline/diesel .
Compare to PE it doesn't form wax-like in the first stage as its pour point is higher than PE & quite close to standard fuel .

The resultant fuel performance is excellent .

I would welcome any suggestions from the forum community .

[Asad Farooqui]

smell removal

[QUOTE=skippy;140904]Getting rid of the smell !!
1: Add about 3-5% Hydrated Lime to your feedstock , During the Thermal cracking process you'll have more Hydrogen which is good and the waste product is Calcium Sulphate in the Slag
[ this method is commonly used on a gassifier ] QUOTE]

Hello skippy .
I tried 4% Hydrated Lime (i.e: calcium Hydroxide Ca(OH)2 .
Adding it with the feedstock PP-watse + WMO (75/25) .

Result :
The smell decreased significantly about 50% .
The color of diesel range lightened from dark Brown to golden yellow.
gasoline color is light lemon yellow , very good .

BUT the gasoline when tested in a motorbyke was not performing well .
It was chocking first & than after few minutes it run the byke but not with normal power Infact reduced power .

We cannot afford to compromise on the performance of the fuel .

Now my question is did I use too much CA(OH)2 ???
Dropping the percentage from 4% to 2-3% ,Will this work ???


[PHP]

[Jetijs]

Hi Asad
That is a great result. How did you add the calcium hydroxide? Just poured it into the reactor? Or did you have a screen containing the catalyst through which the vapors passed? My friend thinks that the reduction in fuel perfomance is only because your gasoline fraction has too much diesel in it, you need to fractionate it properly and then it should work nicely
Thanks,
Jetijs

[oldguy]

Asad's Process

Hi Again Jetijs & Asad

We are building our setup similar to Jetijs's with one differing factor: - We are using the Blest bubbling system and retrieving the petroleum from on top of the water as in their system. Planning to use a solution of Sodium Hydroxide to achieve what Asad has achieved. Have long thought that using a hybrid system with wmo and plastic was the way to go. Any suggestions?

[mbrownn]

[QUOTE=Asad Farooqui;143389]

Getting rid of the smell !!
1: Add about 3-5% Hydrated Lime to your feedstock , During the Thermal cracking process you'll have more Hydrogen which is good and the waste product is Calcium Sulphate in the Slag
[ this method is commonly used on a gassifier ] QUOTE]

Hello skippy .
I tried 4% Hydrated Lime (i.e: calcium Hydroxide Ca(OH)2 .
Adding it with the feedstock PP-watse + WMO (75/25) .

Result :
The smell decreased significantly about 50% .
The color of diesel range lightened from dark Brown to golden yellow.
gasoline color is light lemon yellow , very good .

BUT the gasoline when tested in a motorbyke was not performing well .
It was chocking first & than after few minutes it run the byke but not with normal power Infact reduced power .

We cannot afford to compromise on the performance of the fuel .

Now my question is did I use too much CA(OH)2 ???
Dropping the percentage from 4% to 2-3% ,Will this work ???


[PHP]

I agree with jetijs about the fuel but im very interested in your CA(OH)2