How to turn plastic waste into diesel fuel cheaply

[CRMoore]

Continuous feed

This follows the B-120 Blest design with pellet feed? I like the idea of stuffing a vessel like in the Polyflowcorp video although i understand that's inefficient. Still longing to see an actual unit running in DE!

[mbrownn]

Newest concept that my friend introduced me to.



Such a concept is used in some japanese units. It extrudes the plastic into a tube that is placed on an angle to go a bit upwards. The molten plastic is pushed through that tube and the tube is heated at the same time to some 500 degree. This makes the plastic boil and evaporate leaving only spolids and carbon, maybe some ashes. These are then pushed further till they drop in a collector bin. The gasses travel through the condenser and turn into liquid. The gasses that don't turn into liquid can be used to heat the angled tube.

I still see a problem with introduced air. maybe a partial solution would be a low pressure feedback loop from the start of the 500 degree tube back to the start of the feed screw. this will allow any trapped air to escape while feeding the molten plastic back into the system.

Cleaning this when cooled may be a problem

[Jetijs]

Where will the air come from? The plastic coming out the extruder is in a tooth paste like consistency, it works like a seal so that no ait can come in from the extruder side. In the small tube will be heated to 500 degree, gasses will form that take much higher volumes of space, so some pressure will be created, this pressure will prevent tha air to come in from the condenser side and just to be sure you can always put a water bubbler on the end.
I see no problems so far.

[oldguy]

Suggested New Setup

Hi Again Guys,

Some extruders use a vacuum pump evacuate air or harmful gases. My concern would be that the carbon sump doesnt become a condenser. Wouldn't you need to ensure that it remains hot enough, thus using more energy? I would recommend extending your extruder directly into your cooker and being certain that the hopper into the extruder is never empty, thus eliminating some of the possibilities of getting air into the system. An extension with a fitting onto the extruder barrel similar to the bolt on top of your cooker or steam engine connectors, could make the system easier to clean or maintain.

[Jetijs]

Today I played around with the messy extruder setup a bit more. I turned the temperature way up and this resulted in lots of smoke on the otput and the plastic came out like a thick oil or boiling tar. Some of the smoke also came back into hopper. This means that the extruder temperatures need to be monitored and constant. A thermal sensor and thermostat needs to be used to prevent that from happening. But on the bright side, that liquid plastic vas very britle when hardened, just like solidified candle wax. This means that a partial cracking has already occured in the extruder
Here are some pics:





Anyway, I have ordered a larger slow speed motor with a built in gear reducer with lot of torque. Also I am awaiting some band heaters with 25mm diameter that will fit that ectruder tube nicely. I already have a temperature sensor and a digital thermostat. So as soon as the heaters and the motor arrive I will be able to go further

[dutchdivco]

I like it!

So, actually, the 'reactor vessel' would be the angled tube; THATS where the plastic would be heated hot enough to vaporise it.This helps; my 'hangup' on my design revolved around having to open up the reactor to periodically clean it. This helps a lot! Tell your friend "THANKS!!" Jim

[Asad Farooqui]

How flash pyrolysis will effect the output ?

I would recommend extending your extruder directly into your cooker :

Hi Jetijs ;
Good work,Your continous process diagram will leed to FLASH PYROLYSIS .
This is Fast-pyrolysis of the material in seconds not in hours.
What we are doing is the slow pyrolysis in which the material is heated gradually .
Now the question arises, How Does Flash pyrolysis wil effect the fuel output???
Does flash pyrolysis generate more gas (C1-5 type) & less liquid fuel .

Connecting extruder to our existing cookers will leed to SLOW Pyrolysis .
So same ratio of fuel output will likely come out.

[oldguy]

Extruder to Cooker

Jetis,
Be careful with excessive temperature in your extruder, because the air is very close. Suggest that one change of state for your fuel in the extruder and the final change of state in your cooker can avoid some fire problems. An added benefit might be the ability to feed soft pp or pe bag or wrap directly into your extruder without first densifying.

[mbrownn]

Today I played around with the messy extruder setup a bit more. I turned the temperature way up and this resulted in lots of smoke on the otput and the plastic came out like a thick oil or boiling tar. Some of the smoke also came back into hopper. This means that the extruder temperatures need to be monitored and constant. A thermal sensor and thermostat needs to be used to prevent that from happening. But on the bright side, that liquid plastic vas very britle when hardened, just like solidified candle wax. This means that a partial cracking has already occured in the extruder
Here are some pics:





Anyway, I have ordered a larger slow speed motor with a built in gear reducer with lot of torque. Also I am awaiting some band heaters with 25mm diameter that will fit that ectruder tube nicely. I already have a temperature sensor and a digital thermostat. So as soon as the heaters and the motor arrive I will be able to go further

The second image on this post confirms air bubbles in the plastic. As the plastic and air move down the auger the plastic melts and the air compresses. If the paste is allowed to set under pressure you wont notice many air bubbles but the air is there.

Having a low pressure feedback pipe would allow much of this air to escape, yes some plastic would come out too but that is fed back to the input of the auger. The reason more air will escape than plastic is because of the different viscosity. It wont remove all the air but it is better than nothing.

After a little research it does seem that the gap between the auger and its housing is responsible for most air removal.

[Jetijs]

that is not air, those bubbles are formed by overheated plastic which forms gasses and vapors.

[dushkriv]

hi I m new 2 this site and very much attracted to plastic to fuel reactor as i m a slow learner can you please upload the full process video of conversion plastic to fuel i really need this to understand the full process hope you will understand

[dutchdivco]

New design

Just to elaborate; I have been wanting to design this to use 'waste heat'`from an 'infernal combustion engine', as the source. I'm thinking copper coil around the extruder, with 'coolant' running through it, would heat it to about the right heat.
Then, using the exhaust to heat the angled tube, to hopefully get it to the right temp.
This 'new' design solves several problems.Thanks again, Jetsis, to you and your friend! Jim

[boywonder]

Just to elaborate; I have been wanting to design this to use 'waste heat'`from an 'infernal combustion engine', as the source. I'm thinking copper coil around the extruder, with 'coolant' running through it, would heat it to about the right heat.
Then, using the exhaust to heat the angled tube, to hopefully get it to the right temp.
This 'new' design solves several problems.Thanks again, Jetsis, to you and your friend! Jim

What if you made up a cylindical manifold, pass the exhaust gas through that and put the old propane/Reactor tank on top of it? i wonder would that setup work?

Or maybe better yet, put the reactor tank into a larger tank which is filled with the exhaust gas...

[Jetijs]

hi I m new 2 this site and very much attracted to plastic to fuel reactor as i m a slow learner can you please upload the full process video of conversion plastic to fuel i really need this to understand the full process hope you will understand

I don't have the device here, it is at my friends house. We need to test the fuel now with several engines and then we will start building a better unit. Then I will make a full video.

[Jetijs]

Here are some more pictures from my friend: