How to turn plastic waste into diesel fuel cheaply

[otpadnoulje]

Were you able to weigh a litre of your fuel?

I do not have good scales or good "liter".

My fuel comes from wmo, only. I haven't tested plastic yet.
point is to spent fuel ASAP. My son do it quite well.

[otpadnoulje]

Were you able to weigh a litre of your fuel?

I do not have good scales or good "liter".

My fuel comes from wmo, only. I haven't tested plastic yet.
point is to spent fuel ASAP. My son do it quite well.

[islander]

WMO yield

the 2 providers for plans claim they can only turn 50% of the wmo into diesel, left part to be used as heat source.

my personal experience told me the same. at a maximum temperature around 400°C, after a while, diesel production decrease and stops.

if you want to get more out of the left wmo in the reactor, you need to heat more, example until 780°C like i did but the only thing you will get is uncondensable gaz and you will get a lot of coke inside your reactor. but no more diesel out of it. it's said this occurs because haven't enough hydrogen atoms in the left wmo. it seems to me the industry have a solution, is to mix water steam at cracking temperatures and high pressure, hydrocracking, but it's too difficult for us here.

I don't know the exact ratio, but 50% the other claims seems to me quite realistic.


Chinese on alibaba sell a catalyst they claim would make the diesel more stable and no color problem, less smell. I have ordered, not already get it.

I have a golf 1.9D vw (indirect old way injection) but the motor is quite used out.

I had issues with it using waste hydraulic oil, injectors damaged. I guess had water inside the oil.

it is very clear to me now : the water bonded to oil is still very active, beware of it ! care should be taken not only to free water, but also bonded water.

Now I use the centrifuge, it seems to me the centrifuge have the ability to remove a serious part of the bonded water. ( someone could confirm it maybe ? )

my last try of my produced diesel in my vw 1.9d is not very good. I mixed only 20% of it into market diesel, but the car smokes blue a lot when giving it a charge. after 5 min of charging it, it get hotter and the smoke disappears.

the used out motors are much sensible to fuel quality.

all of us should have a small set up to analyse the fuel produced, just like the petrol industry do :

they have a standart about that for diesel. it looks not so hard to make : how much % gone at 160°c, how much % gone at other temps.... basically only need the method, a scale, and a thermometer ?

heat at the temp, let boil if it wants to (let the stuff go away) then weight the remaining to deduct the part gone, and continue until the next step.

I have the temps of a standart somewhere.

[islander]

cracking process descripted into a book :

"cracking is the opposite of synthesis. with heat, the hydrocarbons the heavier will cut into lighter ones. known under the name of cracking. but this initial cutting later leads to secondary reactions, numerous and complex, relevant to synthesis job. because some molecules coming from cut off are unsaturated, and can re-combine together.

those re-synthesis are done :

-arbitrary (as they want) in the case of thermic cracking and reforming
-selectively using a related catalyst : catalytic reforming, desulfuration catalytic, isomerisation"

(translated by myself )

I retain from this : the sludge problem lead to tank dirt, filter clogging, and injector problems. the sludge problem is not only an oxydation problem, but also a synthesis because we have unsaturated molecules.

must find a treatment to saturate them.

[imakebiodiesel]

CnMoore, thanks for your reply, please bear in mind that we are mostly non academics struggling to grasp what is going on in a fairly complex reaction.
If I restate what I think is happening can you tell me where I am wrong.

Plastics are made up mostly of long chain hydrocarbons that are saturated because they have a hydrogen atom attached to the ends of the chains.

Diesel fuel is mostly made up of relatively short chains of hydrocarbons which are also saturated.

When we crack plastic with our simple reactor the long chains break up into shorter ones but have few extra hydrogen atoms available to seal the ends of the chains. These broken, open ended chains are inherently unstable and will seek to attach them selves to anything available.

In some cases the open ended chains will attach to other open ended chains, (polymerization,waxing)
In other cases the open ended chains will attach to oxygen,( oxidation, sludge precipitation)
In other cases one end of the chain will attach itself to the other end forming a circular molecule. These are the aromatic molecules which are good for gasoline performance but not so good from a pollution/ health point of view.

In the oil industry the extra hydrogen atoms are provided by the catalyst in catalytic cracking and by superheated steam in hydrocracking.

From Asads description of what happened when he used CaOH I guessed that the Ca OH was combining with any sulphur present and releasing hydrogen which was causing partial saturation. It seemed to fit the facts, why was I wrong?

[Francisco Mora]

hi could you please help me in designing the gas condenser, as very little has been said of the matter, my reactor manufactured and only need the capacitor in advance thanks for your help
: Thumbsup:

[otpadnoulje]

This is my diesel.


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[islander]

congratulations ! your diesel looks really beautiful

how long do you keep it like that ?

on the second photo, what is it ? condenser at right ?

[otpadnoulje]

how long do you keep it like that ?

on the second photo, what is it ? condenser at right ?

i can' t keep it long time. It starts to dark after distillation.

yes, it is condenser on right.

[imakebiodiesel]

That diesel looks perfect, good colour, no cloudiness.
Islander, you are right , water is a major problem in diesel fuel. Biodiesel brewers have always had to deal with water problems, especially when water is used to wash residual soap out of the fuel.
Some use centrifuges but most would agree that a centrifuge while excellent for removing dirt, will not dry fuel completely. It will not have much effect on suspended water.
I dry my biodiesel by heating it up to 65 degrees C and pumping it through a simple fitting that creates a bubble shaped fountain. I blow hot air over this fountain for 2 to 4 hours. It starts with about 1000ppm of water and after drying it has less than 200ppm.
I also have a home made test kit that can measure water content very accurately called a carbide manometer.
If you want to find out more about controlling water content visit our forum at biodiesel discussion forum click on forums, biodiesel, dewatering.

Jetijs, I have most of the components gathered up to build my reactor. Im going for a design very similar to the one you showed recently in photographs. In fact i may have bought the heater bands from the same ebay seller.
I have a question about the v shape seal you use on the lid. Is the male v narrower and taller than the female groove, or are they exactly the same?

[otpadnoulje]

Thanks everybody! I have much learned here.
Thanks Jetijs for cone idea.
This is my improve.
Enjoy!



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Francisco Mora, how much vapor do you need to condense. Tell us as much as you can about your reactor. hope, we can help you!

[wikisi]

hi folks,

I have tried to crack WMO but with little success. I believe at these temps you guys are talking about, 350-400 Celsius, you're just DISTILLING the WMO, NOT cracking it. You really need to heat the crap out of it in order to CRACK it.

I've tried two different setups, the first one without a catalyst, the second one with a catalyst (Steel wool). I was heating the reactor with wood in both setups plus whatever gas was produced.

In the first setup, what I got was new motor oil. Instead of cracking it, I just distilled it. The second setup gave me a variety of products. The sample I took in the very beginning would light even easier than gasoline. The further into the process the more viscous and more difficult to light the samples got until it wouldn't light at all.

I talked about my experiment here.. Sciencemadness - What's the difference between cracking and distilling?

I've given up on WMO but I'd like to try plastic sometime in the future. Anyways, I just thought I'd share my experience that's all.

[wikisi]

@otpadnoulje: I saw your picture. It looks like new motor oil instead of diesel. What I got looked just like that. What's the viscosity like? Is it thick like motor oil or thin like diesel? The viscosity will tell you what it is because there's a large enough difference in viscosity between the two.

[Asad Farooqui]

White smoke removal.

Hello Imakebiodiesel ;
Thanks for your quick replies .
My guess is that Iam getting White Smoke out from my Diesel Car exhaust-pipe , which may be the unburned kerosine range vapours ???

The test results will be available in a couple of days . I hope it works .

Hello Everybody ;
White Smoke almost Gone from my Diesel Car exhaust tale-pipe.
I removed the kerosene fraction OUT of the diesel range UPTO 215 Celsius.

[islander]

to wikisi

hello
haven't already look at your website... but I can tell you my first exeprience was trying to "distill" a waste motor oil from my diesel car, a simple pot on a stove. And I got : gasoline !!! very easy to light with a spark, burning very quick.

my question was : where does this gasoline comes from ???

and the best : the diesel wmo was used on a car using wvo only