How to turn plastic waste into diesel fuel cheaply

[Francisco Mora]

[QUOTE=mbrownn;143469]

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

hi all tell them that I have read all the information you have provided and I owe a lot to jetis for being an open minded person, and help another, I'm from Nicaragua and fuel are more expensive than in other countries and I starting as has build a reactor together with the capacitor quickly upload photos for their opinion of my project

[Asad Farooqui]

Ca(OH)

Hi Asad
That is a great result. How did you add the calcium hydroxide?

It is very simple . Ca(OH)2 comes in powder form . First mix this powder in WMO & pour in the reactor .
Heat this mixture to 160 celsius & than add PP-waste which will start melting immediately . Further heating the mixture upto 400 celcius will crack all the material to vapours .

2) Gasoline fraction ALWAYS I collect upto 160 celsius . But after adding 4% of Ca(OH)2 the color & smell improved significantly .
Fuel performance went down .
I would repeat my question to Skippy,who recommended calcium hydrroxide at the first place .
I plan to repeat this experiment with 2% Ca(OH)2 .

[imakebiodiesel]

Hi Asad,your experiment with hydrated lime is very interesting. It is a very reactive material so it may have caused a change in the ratio of light to heavy fractions.
One way to check the consistency of the various fractions is to weigh one litre. For instance one litre of gasoline weighs 740gms. One litre of low sulphur diesel weighs 840gms. If your gasoline fraction weighs much more than 740 gms it probably contains too much diesel.

[imakebiodiesel]

An important aspect of Asads method is that it avoids the need for a lot of shredding. PP items can be fed into the reactor whole or just broken into large pieces. For me ,since I cant easily get shredded waste, this is very important.

[otpadnoulje]

[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


The color of diesel range lightened from dark Brown to golden yellow.
gasoline color is light lemon yellow , very good .


[PHP]

what was happened with color, 1 day after? Still golden yellow, or brown dark again?

[imakebiodiesel]

Hydrated lime is calcium hydroxide Ca OH2 which will combine with sulphur in the oil/pp mix and produce Calcium sulphate CaSO4 plus a by product of hydrogen. This hydrogen will do one of two things, one escape with the uncondensed gas and be burned off, or combine with the hydrocarbons in the reactor to change the nature of the resultant fuels.
As an example of what might happen a typical diesel/ kerosene molecule is C12 H23. If this molecule combined with 3 more hydrogen atoms it would be C12 H26 which is a typical gasoline molecule. So it is possible that the excess hydrogen is causing greater production of fuel somewhere between diesel and gasoline. If this ends up in the gasoline fraction it may cause running problems.

Two questions Asad, did you notice any change to the flame when burning the uncondensed gas? Was there more or less gasoline fraction than usual?

Motor oil and PP will contain far less sulphur than coal, which skippy was referring to so I would guess that you should be able to reduce the proportion of lime considerably.

[Asad Farooqui]

Ca(OH)2

[QUOTE=otpadnoulje;143747]

Thanks for explaining the chemical reaction taking place with Ca OH2.
I was wondering Ca OH is doing its job but probably I overdosed it .
what was happened with color, 1 day after? Still golden yellow, or brown dark again?

The Gasoline fuel color remain the same even after 04-05 days.
Kerosine & diesel range fuel color darkened a bit next day .
The diesel range fuel recovered previously without Ca OH , color was almost like Coke/Pepsi.

I will check the gravity/weight per liter of all three fractions gasoline/kerosine/diesel & report back ASAP.

2) Dosage of Ca OH2 : yes you are correct, I also think it should be halfed & tried again .

[Asad Farooqui]

Ca OH dosage

Two questions Asad, did you notice any change to the flame when burning the uncondensed gas? Was there more or less gasoline fraction than usual?

Motor oil and PP will contain far less sulphur than coal, which skippy was referring to so I would guess that you should be able to reduce the proportion of lime considerably.

Hello imakebiodiesel ;
Thanks for explaining the chemistry behind the Ca-OH reaction with WMO/PP.
I was feeling Ca-OH2 is working BUT I overdosed it.
Maybe I should half the dosage to 2% of the feedstock & try again .

Answer of your questions ;
1) The color of the flame I didn't feel important to notice,next time I will .

2) Gasoline fraction I recovered was more or less the same but the diesel fuel I recovered was more .

3) The smell of all the fuels recovered decreased about 4-times .

4) I will check the gravity/weight per liter of all fuels & report back tomorrow .

[CRMoore]

Odd number of Hs

Most fuels have an even H count eg with the C/H ratio of 1:2, for C12H24 or 12+2) for C12H26 so C12H23 puzzles me.

[Insearch]

CaOH 2

Hello imakebiodiesel ;
Thanks for explaining the chemistry behind the Ca-OH reaction with WMO/PP.
I was feeling Ca-OH2 is working BUT I overdosed it.
Maybe I should half the dosage to 2% of the feedstock & try again .

Answer of your questions ;
1) The color of the flame I didn't feel important to notice,next time I will .

2) Gasoline fraction I recovered was more or less the same but the diesel fuel I recovered was more .

3) The smell of all the fuels recovered decreased about 4-times .

4) I will check the gravity/weight per liter of all fuels & report back tomorrow .

Dear Asad
Nice work done.
I am rying to build system , but after going through all the post I am bit confussed what should be the design.
Also guide me how you prepared CaOH2 is it just u added Water to Lime, what is the ratio and milky white colour liquid on top is used or complete mixture or just the solid stlleled at the bottom.
also want to know how to add it to reactor in case I just want to use waste PP and HDPE.
If possible plz send the photos of ur design and product.

[imakebiodiesel]

You are right,my mistake.
Gasoline is mostly composed of alkanes that have the structure Cn H2n+2. But it also contains napthenes which are Cn H2n and aromatic hydrocarbons which are Cn Hn. In a hot reactive atmosphere of excess hydrogen these last 2 could acquire more hydrogen atoms. This would go some way to explaining the reduction in smell as it is the open ended molecules Cn Hn that have the strongest smell.
Its astonishing that the human nose can detect the absence of just 2 hydrogen atoms.
The other strong smelling component of crude oil is sulphur and there would be some sulphur in wmo but perhaps less in pp.

[imakebiodiesel]

Another mistake to correct. In fact pp may contain more sulphur than the motor oil. In Europe motor oil will not contain more than 0.5% sulphur. PP may have as much as 1% sulphur added to make it more easily coloured.

[Asad Farooqui]

Ca(OH)2

You are right,my mistake.
Gasoline is mostly composed of alkanes that have the structure Cn H2n+2. But rit also contains napthenes which are Cn H2n and aromatic hydrocarbons which are Cn Hn.

Dear Imakebiodiesel ;
Gasoline fraction NORMALLY collected upto 150 Celsius .
I ALWAYS deliberately increase the temp of the soup 10 degree more to 160 Celsius to trap the NAPTHENES also.

This give the gasoline more power & performs like Hi-Octane fuel , so the vehicle will not crumble while climbing a hill, bykes can be started in half-kick easily . The drive becomes more pleasure ...

Now after hearing the chemical reaction with CaOH2 from U .
My guess the Hydrogen particles are sticking with naptha particles & making them heavier like diesel particles .This forces the gasoline to underperform.


Now Iam thinking about following two options to try ;

1) Reducing the CaOH percentage from 4 to 2% of the feedstock .
2) Decreasing the temperature of the Gasoline range from 16 to 150 Celsius . This will avoid the naptha particles to be present in the Gasoline range .

I would like to have your opinion , which option would be suitable ???

[imakebiodiesel]

I think that reducing the lime is a good idea but it may not solve the problem because there will always be some excess hydrogen. I would reduce by half and observe the result, reduce by half again untill you find the minimum amount the will lighten the colour and reduce the smell without affecting the performance.
I think the second idea of reducing the temperature of the condenser will work straight away. Remember to weigh a litre of each fraction of each batch so that you have a record of any change in fuel quality caused by changes in the process.

[Asad Farooqui]

My BABY .

Dear Asad
I am rying to build system , but after going through all the post I am bit confussed what should be the design.
Also guide me how you prepared CaOH2.

Hello Insearch ;

1) I have just completed my 100 Gallon per batch unit .
I would like to attach pics of my baby but I tried to copy/paste it but unsucessfull .I would like to know HOW to attach pictures & video .
If anybody can guide me ???

My unit has a Dual-heating system=elec-heaters+ gas burner .
It's a closed looped process . The C1-4 type gas vapours which are non-condensable , are FedBack into burner chamber to heat the main reactor .Resulting in Zero gas wastage .
Temperature controllers for all reactors are installed .
There is much more but U have to waot for the pics & video ......


2) CaOH2 , don't try to make everything yourself . Its judt added 2-3% only & will not increase the cost much .
I got the CaOH from a fine chemical supplier in my city.
You can easily get it from such a supplier in your city. It's available in 01 kg & 25 kg bag packing .
MERCK is a German company 135 years old offers most of the fine chemicals , maybe U find there local agent .