How to turn plastic waste into diesel fuel cheaply

[Piet]

Can anybody tell me at what temperature wax is made and and what temperature diesel is made either in the retort or reflux.
Thanks, Piet.

[wheels]

can you mix activated carbon and zeolite?
would the zeolite become useless?

Yes you can mix the two, but why?? What are you trying to achieve? Activated Carbon acts purely a "Filter". It does not act as a Catalyst. Zeolite can also be used as a filter in certain situations and in specific ways of use, but more commonly, it is used as a Catalyst. And in saying that, it is a particular type of Zeolite that tends to work the best as that Catalyst, although any of the other Zeolites will do better than nothing.
The next question that needs asking is, what is happening to your end product that you think you may need a catalyst?

[chacowako]

can you mix activated carbon and zeolite?
would the zeolite become useless?

[wheels]

HDPE= 250,000 J/kg
LDPE= 200,000 J/kg
You also have to take into account the Steel the vessel is made from.

I thought i should clarify that last statement. I meant how thick the Steel is, which will be mass and mass will take time to heat to temperature.

Also, this formula may help for you to work out the energy required.
P(W) = E(J) / t(s)
So,
watt = joule / second
or,
W = J / s
To work out how many Watts you will need for a Minute, x the Sum by 60 and then 60 again if you want the Sum per hr. Per hr would be helpful to work out against the amount of plastic you are wanting to process per hr. You would want a Heat source with more output than what you work out in theory, because there will be some variables. Like how much moisture is in the plastic, in the air, Air temp, Steel thickness, heat loss through insulation, heat loss traveling through pipe work with Hydrocarbon vapors and heat loss due to inefficiency of heat transfer, which you will have escape out through the Flu.

[wheels]

reactor of 330 cm height. 127 cm diameter. Does 45 kW resistance enough?

I doubt it. I am using 30Kw to heat a vessel just a fraction of that size. It takes a specific amount of energy per Kg to Pyrolyze Plastics and do that efficiently. The amount of energy varies between plastic types, but it takes the following just to melt these Plastics. It takes even more energy to take plastic right through to Pyrolysis.
HDPE= 250,000 J/kg
LDPE= 200,000 J/kg
You also have to take into account the Steel the vessel is made from. That has to be heated to temperature first. That takes energy as well and then you havr to take into account the amount of steel exposed to Air. This is where heat will transfer and escape and that heat must be replaced all the time. The bigger you go, the more chance of loss and the heat required to do the job has to increase exponentially. This is because Area/Volume increases exponentially.

[wheels]

Gentleman
I have been away from my project for some time, I'v decided to make an automatic feed for the Plastic feedstock.

My retort has diesal burner blowing into a spiral bound system outside the. retort.

i was thinking of using the exhaust to heat the Plastic Feeder through a screw type mechanism .
Q's
1. can anyone supply a simple drawing of how to design a system,
The real query here is would I need to heat the Funnel feeding the extruder or just concentrate on heating the extruder element
2. Would I require a non return valve in case the feeder is running empty to stop The vapour stream entering the Feeder? If so any further suggestion's would be appreciated.
3. Would there be any problems of overheating the Feeder using the exhaust gases, how could we control the temperature- a manual/automatic wastegate ? or not required
4. Last question does anybody have any simple ideas of developing a plastic shredder ?

Thankyou

Very dangerous ground. If you can not work out the design and issues yourself, do not attempt it.
You need a very specially designed screw/auger. You need to be able to expel all oxygen that went into the feed with the plastic particles. You have to be able to contain all the gasses produced, as the screw heats the plastic as it gets closer to the Retort. It requires some well designed, highly engineered and complex controlled machinery.

[kedigen]

reactor of 330 cm height. 127 cm diameter. Does 45 kW resistance enough?

[dippy909]

Plastic Extruder

Gentleman
I have been away from my project for some time, I'v decided to make an automatic feed for the Plastic feedstock.

My retort has diesal burner blowing into a spiral bound system outside the. retort.

i was thinking of using the exhaust to heat the Plastic Feeder through a screw type mechanism .
Q's
1. can anyone supply a simple drawing of how to design a system,
The real query here is would I need to heat the Funnel feeding the extruder or just concentrate on heating the extruder element
2. Would I require a non return valve in case the feeder is running empty to stop The vapour stream entering the Feeder? If so any further suggestion's would be appreciated.
3. Would there be any problems of overheating the Feeder using the exhaust gases, how could we control the temperature- a manual/automatic wastegate ? or not required
4. Last question does anybody have any simple ideas of developing a plastic shredder ?

Thankyou

[chacowako]

Excalibur Thanks for feedback now I understand your Orion drawing of how your condenser worked. I was wondering why there was only 2.

[Excalibur]

I need advice from the experts on condensers how do you calculate the temperature drop from distance of the length of pipe to each condenser.
example
condenser 1 350c
condenser 2 250c distance from condenser 1 4 feet
condenser 3 150c distance from from condenser 2 3 feet
Or there are just too many variables to make it that simple.
But I plan to use heater bands from 250c and 150c as 350 can use just simple insulation

chacowako, I think earlier you said you are aiming at making diesel and not interested in gasoline, therefore you can make this array somewhat simpler.
Two condenser vessels in series followed by a bubbler is what you can get away with. Even simpler would be one vessel for diesel plus bubbler but the downside is that gasoline would end up floating on the bubbler water, raising its' level and it becomes a pain to extract.
The setup works like this: the reflux is tuned to the correct workable temperature so that the maximum weight that exits is that of diesel fuel. Heat from the stream maintains the temperature of the diesel vessel and all that is required is about 60°C in there. A heat exchanger at the diesel vessel inlet quenches the stream as required so that the diesel vessels' heat can be regulated. The 60°C mentioned earlier forces any excessively light fractions to be driven off downstream, hence the need to capture these in condenser vessel#2.
The point of it is, is that diesel is a range of hydrocarbons some of which overlap with gasoline. So only the most volatile of these fractions need be extracted from the diesel to make it stable enough to use in a diesel vehicle.
Tuning the reflux is going to need a bit of trial and error but the temperature maintained in this does dictate the weight of the fuel that lands in the 1st condenser vessel. To put this in simple terms, if the fuel dropping into condenser#1 is too heavy then lower the reflux temperature. If the fuel is too light then raise the reflux temp. I suggest starting point be about 300°C -350°C range and tweak from there. All this assumes that everything about the retort and reflux is working in harmony, correctly proportioned and appropriated levels of retort heat energy are being applied.
HTH

[wheels]

I need advice from the experts on condensers how do you calculate the temperature drop from distance of the length of pipe to each condenser.

example
condenser 1 350c
condenser 2 250c distance from condenser 1 4 feet
condenser 3 150c distance from from condenser 2 3 feet
Or there are just too many variables to make it that simple.
But I plan to use heater bands from 250c and 150c as 350 can use just simple insulation

Yes it is far too difficult to do it that way. The temperature will vary dramatically with flow.
With my Plant, i use the Heat exhaust to heat the Reflux and Catalyst chamber, but the temperature does vary dramatically.
To give the best control, you need a heater on each Condenser and a temperature controller on each to ensure a steady stable temperature is achieved.

[chacowako]

I need advice from the experts on condensers how do you calculate the temperature drop from distance of the length of pipe to each condenser.

example
condenser 1 350c
condenser 2 250c distance from condenser 1 4 feet
condenser 3 150c distance from from condenser 2 3 feet
Or there are just too many variables to make it that simple.
But I plan to use heater bands from 250c and 150c as 350 can use just simple insulation

[kedigen]

Does 45 kW resistance heater?

[Excalibur]

I would look closely at the air/fuel ratio for the burner. It sounds like it isn't getting enough air to burn clean. Also with correct air/fuel it will be most efficient so will give best fuel economy. The burners I'm familiar with have a simple means of restricting the amount of air the fan can draw. While the amount of air is manually adjustable, the fuel volume is only increased/decreased with bigger/smaller nozzles. It might be worth looking at the spec for the fuel the burner uses. I think at least some use a diesel fuel similar to 'number 1', so in the region of .810SG.
HTH, else post a pic.

[wheels]

hi
oil-fired heating did smoke a lot. I think my system resistance heating. 4.5 m3 reactor. 45 kW of electricity would be enough? reactor of 330 cm height. 127 cm diameter.

Wow!! Are you trying to melt plastic? or make a Nuclear Fusion reactor? That is a lot of Power for a small vessel and the Power Bill must be horrific surely.

If the Oil fired was producing too much smoke, it is possible you don't have it burning correctly. It should be able to burn hot and clean if tuned just right.