How to turn plastic waste into diesel fuel cheaply

[noonya]

I finally gave up and when it cooled I opened the barrel to see the results. The plastic had melter down to about 2 inches at the bottom of the barrel it was under my heating chamber. I believe i could have controlled the temp better had I been able to fill the barrel to the top.

We have the information here on how to create fuel ,but has anyone come up with an effective way to grind or shredd there own plastic. I would have to have it shipped in where I live. Thanks again for all the info.

I also had a similar experience. Try what Asaad does: first heat wmo to 160c and add chunks of plastic. They'll melt immediately and add more until you fill it. Plastic shredders/grinders are available on ebay but they're quite expensive and hard to build on your own. Maybe others have a different experience.

[dutchdivco]

WOW Jetsis

Your 'offspring' is starting to produce 'children'! How does it feel to be a 'grandpa'? You should be very proud.And all this talk from people firing up their systems, and producing product is giving me a kick in the a**, to get going! Great work, guys! Jim

[imakebiodiesel]

I am starting construction of my reactor and am copying Asad's idea of using heater bands rather than firebrick and coils. . The reactor body will be welded up from large diameter steel pipe. Im trying to work out the capacity of the finished reactor. A question Adad, how near to the top can you fill a reactor?
Is there a danger that the wmo/pp mix will foam up and travel up the outlet if it is over filled?
Your photos show great detail which Im sure everybody would agree are very helpful. I see you have constructed a type of reflux tower above the reactor. Does it have internal baffles, or any material to slow down the flow of vapour. I have constructed several reflux towers for methanol recovery and found that filling the tower with rashid rings, glass marbles or even stainless steel scouring pads increases the efficiency by a lot.
Good luck with your new processor.

[owuuta]

I also had a similar experience. Try what Asaad does: first heat wmo to 160c and add chunks of plastic. They'll melt immediately and add more until you fill it. Plastic shredders/grinders are available on ebay but they're quite expensive and hard to build on your own. Maybe others have a different experience.

I was hoping to side step that. I feel like i'm cheating the system. But I am sure that is by far the easiest way to handle this problem for now... until some brain comes up with something better. Thanks for the reminder.

[Asad Farooqui]

feeding Lid assembly

Thanks for sharing pictures and congrats for your work !
I am experiencing incredible strong deposits into my first diesel batch, it was sitting here for about 3 to 4 weeks.

Hello Islander ;
I modified My Feeding LID-Assembly a little bit & Now it worked perfect. No leakage even at 400 celsius/full day batch running .

1) I found out that Both the male-female lids were kissing each other when they were bolted .
I grinded/cut the upper Lid about 02mm down .This avoided the male-female LID from KISSing .

2) I replaced M/S nut bolts with S/Steel Nut + LN-Key Bolts with spring washer.

For removing Strong deposits in your first Diesel batch, wouldn't it be appropriate to pass it through an Oil CENTRIFUGE machine instead of adding any antioxidant ???
Nowadays Iam hunting for centrifuge machine & I found used centrifuge machine in my cities scrapyard. They get them from scraped ships .
They say in each ship it is a standard practice to pass all the diesel first through a centrifuge machine than to the Engine, in order to remove all the dirt/sludge & moisture accumulated during storage in tanks .

[Asad Farooqui]

My Reflux tower .

A question Adad, how near to the top can you fill a reactor?
Is there a danger that the wmo/pp mix will foam up and travel up the outlet if it is over filled?
Does it have internal baffles, or any material to slow down the flow of vapour. I have constructed several reflux towers for methanol recovery and found that filling the tower with rashid rings, glass marbles or even stainless steel scouring pads increases the efficiency by a lot.
Good luck with your new processor.

Hello Imakbiodiesel ;
1) Reflux Tower :
My reflux tower has NO baffles OR anything inside because I don't know about baffles ...........
The reason I thought it should have nothing-INSIDE, is that what I expect from this reflux reactor is to throw-Back/down all the heavy fractions above 350 Celsius back in the main reactor. As Jetijs once said, "these fractions Could be chopped again & again until they are in diesel range ".

The heavies I expect to be quite thick may need more CLEAR space .
The bottom of the reflux reactor is deliberately conical & a 3" inch pipe is joining it with the reactor . Otherwise all the other pipes I used are 2"-Seamless pipes .

2) WMO/PP foaming issue :
I haven't experience any foaming issue when using this hybrid products .
Carbogger & even Jetijs (I guess) fully load the reactor upto the lid .
I prefer to fill it 2/3 of the total loading capacity .Infact my first batch was just 1/4 of the capacity . Next batch tomorrow Inshallah I will be filling 1/2 & gradually I will increase the quanitity .
Here we should seek GrandPa-Jetijs advise............(according to duchdivco)

The reason for gradual filling is that if any flaw comes up it will be easier to shut down the system immediately rather than full load.
Another reason of putting reflux tower on top of main tower is that by any chance foaming occurs, the reflux tower I hope will drop it back
to the main reactor as the height for the foam/vapours are increased about 04-feet more ???

Iam afraid I make too long explanations , should I ???

[Jetijs]

Hi all
I am glad to see such a progress from you all. Thank you!
dutchdivco, it is truly great that more and more people are experimenting with this, this tech offers so much possibilities, it's crazy! All the credits should go to my friend, he is the one who got this tech so far with months of experimenting and low budget, nevertheless he got great results. Thanks man!
Asad, my friend does not fill the reactor full, maybe about 70% of full volume. He also uses the reflux tower with a big hole connecting it and the reactor so that the heavy stuff can flow back. It is advisable to fill the reflux tower with some copper or other metal wire to increase the surface area in contact with the vapors, this allows to minimize the reflux tower size and increases the efficiency.
Thank you all for your great work!

[imakebiodiesel]

Thanks, I will work on the estimate of 70% full.
Asad, a reflux column will work better if the surface area inside the column is increased. Biodiesel brewers use these stills to recover methanol from our glycerol byproduct. Because we are dealing with a very thin liquid we often use stainless steel wire or scouring pads. With thick liquids or waxes larger spaces would be better so perhaps glass marbles or large ball bearings might be better.

[dushkriv]

Plastic fuel vs Bio-Diesel

Hi,
I like 2 know the difference between plastic fuel and bio-diesel.
How much time it take 2 complete 1 batch of converting waste plastic to fuel
As I already done this process in a small Qty of 1 Kg Plastic but i can only get 200ml of fuel from it which is very flamable and vapourised liquid.

If we have to sell this product in large qty what types of licence required for it in India.

I will upload my process pic and videos soon.

Dude I really need you help in this matter and want u to responce me at angelo.rajesh@rediffmail.com

[owuuta]

Carpet?

I know I read somewhere that carpet might be used as a plastic source. I searched this thread but couldn't find it. When I check google it says that some carpets are made with recycled drinking bottles. So I guess this wouldn't work. Is that right or am I confused?

[Insearch]

Shedded Plastic

Hello Imakbiodiesel ;
1) Reflux Tower :
My reflux tower has NO baffles OR anything inside because I don't know about baffles ...........
The reason I thought it should have nothing-INSIDE, is that what I expect from this reflux reactor is to throw-Back/down all the heavy fractions above 350 Celsius back in the main reactor. As Jetijs once said, "these fractions Could be chopped again & again until they are in diesel range ".

The heavies I expect to be quite thick may need more CLEAR space .
The bottom of the reflux reactor is deliberately conical & a 3" inch pipe is joining it with the reactor . Otherwise all the other pipes I used are 2"-Seamless pipes .

2) WMO/PP foaming issue :
I haven't experience any foaming issue when using this hybrid products .
Carbogger & even Jetijs (I guess) fully load the reactor upto the lid .
I prefer to fill it 2/3 of the total loading capacity .Infact my first batch was just 1/4 of the capacity . Next batch tomorrow Inshallah I will be filling 1/2 & gradually I will increase the quanitity .
Here we should seek GrandPa-Jetijs advise............(according to duchdivco)

The reason for gradual filling is that if any flaw comes up it will be easier to shut down the system immediately rather than full load.
Another reason of putting reflux tower on top of main tower is that by any chance foaming occurs, the reflux tower I hope will drop it back
to the main reactor as the height for the foam/vapours are increased about 04-feet more ???

Iam afraid I make too long explanations , should I ???

Dear Asad,
Nice Explanations
I have plastic reprocessing setup in this we feed HDPE, LDPE and PP and heat it upto 300 deg and output is Plastic lumps which are directly sold in market and some of it is also used in Plastic molding machine for making small plastic disks for industry after crushing it (shedding).
I want to know can I use this Shredded Plastic as Raw Material.
Also please give the design of your recovery tanks.
Soon I will post photos of my existing setup.

[imakebiodiesel]

Dushkriv,
Im no expert on plastic diesel but I do know about biodiesel. Biodiesel is made from vegetable oil. the veg oil is heated to 65DegreesC and a mixture of methanol and potassium hydroxide is added and mixed. The veg oil converts to biodiesel and a by product, glycerol is produced.
Biodiesel is a well established fuel and is used both as an additive to ordinary diesel and on its own.
Plastic diesel is a new experimental fuel and although the early results are very positive there has not been any official testing or quality standards applied to plastic diesel.

[Asad Farooqui]

Reflux tower .

Hi all
Asad, my friend does not fill the reactor full, maybe about 70% of full volume.
It is advisable to fill the reflux tower with some copper or other metal wire

Dear jetijs ;
Thank you very much for your comments , Iam HONORED.

1) Reflux Tower:
Bafles , Yes they are necessary , thanks Jetijs & Imakebiodiesel for your advise .
Today I testes the Gasoline & Diesel fraction I collected from the first batch of my 100-G Baby .
Gasoline fuel performance is excellent .
Diesel range fuel is not upto the mark , color Blackish & performance below average . seems to be viscous,
Tomorrow I will check its viscosity & S.gravity & report back .I also plan to re-heat the diesel fraction upto 350 Celsius .
Now Iam realizing that the reflux tower in the absence of any metallic material, is not able to control the heavies to fall-down in the main reactor & Jetijs U R right the metallic filling will increase the surface area for the vapours to travel through .
I have completely welded my reflux tower . I only have one 1/2" temperature controller PORT on top of the tower.
Iam afraid I have to cut it again to fill it up . Any suggestions ???


2) Very little Gasoline & too much Burning gas:
Interestingly I got very little Gasoline & too much burning gas . I even try to pour chilled water in the double jacket but very little improvement .
I feel, Heat-Exchanger is badly needed here.
Tomorrow I plan to make a temporary heat-exchanger by connecting before the bubbler an Ice-Box type-Plastic barrel containing Inside a flexible 26-ft PVC-pipe coiled ROUND . This I hope will collect all the escaping gasoline vapors .


Any advise is more than welcome .

[islander]

To asad farooqui

I use a centrifuge ! I built it frop a bowl and a motor purchased at simplecentrifuge.com

So I can clean my diesel for now, but it will continue to make sludge in my car tank if untreated !

I got a real huge amount of sludge ! From only 10 liters of diesel, enough to clog 20 fuel filters at least... I am thinking about using high capacity filters inline with my car's actual, I got so much clogging issues.

To get a fuel stabilizer is an urgence to me !

The only stuff I found is a treatment against bacteria in boats tanks...to be diluted at 1/1000 I hope it also have all the antioxydant etc... I 'll see the reasults !

How will you cool your reflux tower ? If you got condensation of heavy fraction, they'ld leave heat energy there.... Maybe remove some insulation according to the need ?

[islander]

2) Very little Gasoline & too much Burning gas:

Looks like you are heating too much, like I did formerly.

For wmo (maybe slightly different than plastic) some said : should produce very little gaz. If have gasses, you are heating too much, and on the other hand you'll get coke too. Both probably useless to you...