How to turn plastic waste into diesel fuel cheaply

[bcc063]

Mica Band Heaters

Hi,
Do you think Mica Band Heaters () would work for this application? The heaters in the included link produce temperatures up to 900 degrees F (482 degrees Celcius). What do think the external temperature is to produce and maintain 400 degrees Celcius internal?
Link:
http://www.high-tempindustries.com/b...tercatalog.pdf

BCC

[otpadnoulje]

Hello everybody!



I have plexyglas . PMMA chemical formula C5O2H8. whether the Plexiglas to be a good for pyrolysi?

Jetijs, thanks

[Jetijs]

Hi,
Do you think Mica Band Heaters () would work for this application? The heaters in the included link produce temperatures up to 900 degrees F (482 degrees Celcius). What do think the external temperature is to produce and maintain 400 degrees Celcius internal?
Link:
http://www.high-tempindustries.com/b...tercatalog.pdf

BCC

Hi.
Those heaters look fine. Should also work nice. The temperature will eventually reach the inside of the reactor barrel, I don't think that will be a problem. You just need to find a metal container that fits in thet heater, fill it with plastics and condense the vapors.

Hello everybody!



I have plexyglas . PMMA chemical formula C5O2H8. whether the Plexiglas to be a good for pyrolysi?

Jetijs, thanks

I don't you should try that, it is like PET, it has oxygen in it, could make an explosion hazard. Better stick with pure hydrocarbons.
Look at plastic identification codes:
Resin identification code - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
You can use numbers 2, 4, 5 and 6. Do NOT use numbers 1, 3 and 7 and you should be fine

[Jetijs]

This is my progress on the plastic extrusion part so far:

[bcc063]

Heating an extruder for continuous operation

Hi.
Those heaters look fine. Should also work nice. The temperature will eventually reach the inside of the reactor barrel, I don't think that will be a problem. You just need to find a metal container that fits in thet heater, fill it with plastics and condense the vapors.

Actually, I was thinking of the Mica band heaters as a way to increase temperature up an extruder. Using multiple bands, the first could heat at 400 degrees F, then a second to 600 degrees F, and then the third to 900 degrees F. At a 45 degree angle moving upward the trick is to get the balance right between speed, volume, and heat to create cook time and eventually vapors before dumping into an enclosed compartment.

The company will custom build heater bands...you tell them the diameter, width, voltage, wattage, etc. The price seems to be pretty reasonable. Here is the link to the order form which lets you know what can be ordered. The price is calculated as choices are made.
Mica Band Heaters

[Jetijs]

Oh, got it now
Will have a deeper look into it.
Thank you!

[otpadnoulje]

Thanks , Jetijs!

What about dioxin? Can it be made without of oxigen in reactor ?

[Jetijs]

As far as I know, all dioxins have oxygen and chlorine in it. So as long as you don't use PVC or PET, you should be fine. Polyethylene and polypropylene wont make any dioxins.

[dutchdivco]

Jetsis

Really like how you use readily available things in 'new' applications, like the wood bit as an extruder. Kind of an intelligent "Red/Green" approach. I like the diagram of your smaller unit. Couple of questions; process needs to be anerobic.Would you be filling and sealing the hopper, to insure no O2 getting in, or would the extruder be the seal? My thinking is, if you fill and seal the hopper, melt the plastic to peanut butter consistancy, and have the extruder 'removing' the plastic, your going to create a vacuum in the hopper, as the plastic is removed.Might need a 'return line' running vapor back to the hopper, to eaqualise the pressure?Unless the hopper is not going to be sealed, and you are just going to count on the extruder to make the seal?

Are you familiar with the ceramic microspheres, with a vacuum? Called 'spaceage' insulation, cause developed for NASA? Might be something to look at, for better insulaltion?

Also, is part of your thinking in this making it smaller that you might make this an 'onboard' unit, for a vehicle? So you would carry 'fuel' as plastic, and process 'on board' to power engine? Great work, keep it up Jim

[Jetijs]

Hi Jim.
If everything works as I intend, then the feeder itself will form a seal, because somewhere in the middle of the feeder the plastic will already be in a tootk paste like consistency, that is then jammed into the smaller tubecompressing it tighter together and forming an air tight seal. At least I hope it will work so. But at this point I have some concens about the feeder spiral I am using now. It is not intended for this, several problems were noticed today.



My current setup is as the one in the upper part of the picture. The spriral "teeth" are the same width as the gaps and the gaps are very deep. this poses two problems, first one is that the large surface area makes more friction if there is a small bit of plastic stuck between the outer heater tube and the teeth, if it is melted an plyable, then it is not a problem, but I intend the plastic to get plyable only at around the middle of the feeder tube, the first 15cm of the tube will be cool and the plastic will be fed in granule form. Today I tried to feed the plastic granules straight through the tube without any heating, the spiral was very hard to turn even with a handle. And my feeder motor probably wont handle it. This is because the granules get stuck on the first part where the funnel is. This might be solved by grinding off the sharp edges of the teeth in that part. The second problem is that in the current setup plastic granules come out the end in a sequence and small doses at a time, the gaps in the spiral are not fully filled with the granules, only the lower part. This will make lots of air on the end part along with the plastic. I hope that if I put a small enough nozzle on the end, the plastic will pile up and make a steady stream of melted plastic from the nozzle, will see about that. The next problem is that the spiral pitch is the same all along the length. But it should preferably get progressively smaller in order to compress the melted plastic together and expell air bubbles. Will see just how big that problem is. The bottom part of the picture is the prefered spiral feeder shape. It has a steadily decreasing pitch, small surface area teeth and shallover grooves which enable the plastic to get in better contact to the heated outer walls. Anyway, I have nothing to lose, I will try to heat the feeder tube tomorrow and see how it works

Ohm and the small size is not intended to use it on car eventually, although it could be used in such a way. It is just for the device to be compacter and more efficient as you would use the heat only as much as needed and only where it is needed. It would also be safer because only a small quantity of plastic gets cobverted at a time and it could be turned off for maintenance without waiting long for it to cool. So in sum - safety, efficiency, more control and reduced size

[Jetijs]

Ok, based on this video:
YouTube - Homemade Plastic Extrusion System
my approach should work. This is encouraging. I am glad that someone already made the trouble of gettinbg through all that.

[oldguy]

Is it possible that by extending your extruder exit into your "cooker" you could make it continuous feed? If the pressure in the extruder is greater than in the cooker it should be no problem with blowback. Also, the pre-heating or liqidization should speed up the process. If you get your temp up to 420 - 450 celcius, doesn't that eliminate the paraffin buildup? Great site, great forum!!

[Jetijs]

Hi oldguy
This is exactly the idea, continuous feed setup. Should be more efficient. The pressure should be lower at the cooker at all times so everything should work just fine

[Asad Farooqui]

extruder or continous feeding .

Hello to everybody .
jetijs U r doing a nice job of developing continous feeding system .

I worked a bit in a recycling place for waste PP-bags first extruded into a toothpaste like paste first .
The extruder has to be first heated upto a temperature 10 Celsius before putting waste PP-bags in it without even shredding them . At the other end of the extruder we get toothpaste like PP . A die is fixed at the end which filters most of the carbon particle out .
The threads/teeths of the extruder shaft is not alike but they in width & thickness this helps the plastic material to melt properly .

We heat the Extruders outer cylinders by natural gas burners placed under the extruder cylinder throughout its length but if electricity is readily/cheaply available than electric heat bands should be the first choice .

I would think of placing a standard plastic extruder before the main reactor & allow the paste like material CONTINOUSLY flowing in the main reactor .


Iam fabricating a 500 kg batch size reactor + SOUP reactor + Diesel reactor
+ gasoline cooled container .
To avoid vapour leaks I am welding the top lid completly & infeed FLANGES of 5" wide & 15mm thick are welded on top with a V-groove arrangement as U recommended .
I had the same fire problem as yours with the lid gaskit arrangement .
Heater bands works well I tried & it is simple to fit on the container .

[Asad Farooqui]

PMMA pyrolysis

PMMA is one those rare polymers, when pyrolysed turned back into its original Monomer Methyl metha Acrylate-MMA .
A yield upto 95% pure monomer is achived which almost have the same properties as the virgin monomer .

So you can turn your PMMA waste into a valuable MMA monomer .