How to turn plastic waste into diesel fuel cheaply

[Asad Farooqui]

Try PP

Hi all.
I finally got my setup to run. Experimented with HDPE for two days. It works quite nicely. More experiments to come

Hello Jetijs ;
Well that's what U get when the feedstock is any type of PE only.
Why don't U try PP , U will get oil & it will remain oil even after one year .
No waxes , so no need for second distillation .

[Asad Farooqui]

virgin boy

[QUOTE= Jetijs ; [/QUOTE]

Hy again Jetijs ;
Nice Video , Iam glad U liked my idea of placing a reflux/catalyst chamber ontop of the reactor .
Try placing Ca(OH)2 or nickel powder, in the catalyst chamber & let us know the results .

Well in the video I saw a gentleman, I think its U . Well if its true than U don't look so old as compared to the picture U pasted on your messages .
Infact looks like a Smart virgin boy . .........

[Jetijs]

Great work Jeti
May be some additive can make the wax in liquidity, may be some thinner

I have tried various thinners, solvents, gasoline, kerosine and even aviation fuel. They do nothing about the waxes, just dillute them and make more fluid.

Hello Jetijs ;
Well that's what U get when the feedstock is any type of PE only.
Why don't U try PP , U will get oil & it will remain oil even after one year .
No waxes , so no need for second distillation .

Hi.
I don't have any PP here now, but I have plenty of PE, so I will run all kinds of experiments with PE for now. The good thing about the PE is that it does not oxidize after turned into liquid, the color stays the same for years. And I am certain that the wax problem can be solved and if it is, then you wont have any problems with filtering and oxidizing, no sludge no nothing - only advantages. PP stays liquid, but it oxidizes and produces sludge and you need those expensive additives or stabilizers. So every source material has its plusses and minuses.

Hy again Jetijs ;
Nice Video , Iam glad U liked my idea of placing a reflux/catalyst chamber ontop of the reactor .
Try placing Ca(OH)2 or nickel powder, in the catalyst chamber & let us know the results .

Well in the video I saw a gentleman, I think its U . Well if its true than U don't look so old as compared to the picture U pasted on your messages .
Infact looks like a Smart virgin boy . .........

I will try the catalysts you suggest as soon as I get them, in the mean time I will try what I have at hand.

And yes, that guy in the video am I. I am just as old as I feel

[otpadnoulje]

Nice job, Jetijs!

Wax, what does it mean? It means: The molecular weight distribution of the distillate is very wide. In your distillate there are too many too big molecules.

You have to make bigger reflux chamber to catch and destroy the bigest molecule.

Or , just take off some part of insulations.
Dont forget in your first apparatus uncovrered lead does some function of reflux chamber.

[imakebiodiesel]

Hi Asad, Jetijs et al,
I have been away for a few weeks and am just getting back to work. Asad, you asked me about my " baby". I have got a length of steel pipe and three band heaters to match the diameter. I have got the pipe flanges and have given them to a machinist who will turn the sealing grooves on them for me. This man is very good but very slow so I am continuing to do my small experiments one litre at a time.
I have replicated your mix of 25% motor oil, 73% pp and 2% Calcium hydroxide. This mixture really works well, lemon coloured, which only darkens a little after a few weeks.
My next experiment is to add some PE into the mix. PE is much easier to get here and i would like to add as much as I can without making a waxy fuel.
The reactor I am building has a volume of 25 litres. This is very small but initially i would like to make many small batches with different mixes, different catalysts, different temperatures.
eventually this small reactor may be converted into a continuous reactor or I may replace it with a larger unit like yours.
Jetijs, the blue clay you mention may well be an alumina-silicate, the oil industry now produce highly purified versions of this called zeolite y but if you can obtain it locally and cheaply then go for it.
Can I just make an observation, A catalyst will always work better at higher temperatures, you have placed your catalyst above the reflux tower so you might lose 100 degrees C or more before the vapours reach the catalyst. If the catalyst was at the bottom of the reflux tower, or even in the top of the reactor it might work better.

[mbrownn]

Hi jetijs, Is it possible to fraction off the wax with a high temperature condenser? what is the operating temperature of your kerosene condenser and do you have a higher temperature condenser?

I posted this before "Cracking PE will give mainly paraffins (Kerosene is a paraffin).... The paraffin wax can be separated out by cooling and straining though it is not absolutely required. (meting point is 60c, boiling point is 370C)

Maybe the best compromise is a two stage cracking process with three fractioning vessels.

That is the product of the first vessel, held at a temperature of 275c be fed back into the reactor (or collected), the second vessel is held at 100c to produce kerosene and the third at room temperature will collect petroleum distillates in the gasoline region.

I hope I got all these figures right hehe, it came from wikipedia. I’m sure someone in the petroleum industry could give us better info."

I know that holding a condensation vessel at 275 will be a little more difficult but not impossible. The liquid waxes could be used to heat the reactor or first condenser using a paraffin burner.

Your PE experiments are very interesting to me here, scrap PE is about 10cents per kilo and there is lots of it.

[CRMoore]

chem comment

As PE has just the 2 carbon repeating unit w/o a side chain to help stabilize the radicals formed by cracking repolymerization might occur more readily out competing double bond formation and subsequent oxidation.

[keith20mm]

Hi all.
I finally got my setup to run. Experimented with HDPE for two days. It works quite nicely.

With PE you get great looking fuel, like a whiskey as soon as it is out of the condenser, but when it cools down, it solidifies as paraffin wax:

More experiments to come
Thanks,
Jetijs

This points to the residence time being too short. The temperature needs to be maintained for longer period for the chains to break shorter.

As to the catalyst, I am very surprised at your result.

[kaguar]

Ok, more photos of the fuel.
On the left is untreated one after two weeks. It got completely dark red, non transparent with some sludge on the bottom.
On the right is one treated with stabilizer. It remained transparent and no sludge. In reality the colour is dark yellow.

[Jetijs]

Great
What stabilizer are you using?

[kaguar]

It is liqui moly `speed diesel`. I was assured from their sales rep this additive should solve my problem. So I`m testing it now.
BTW, jetijs, I remember making the fuel some time ago using only PE but I still had problem with sludge and darkening, apart from the waxes. Are you using anything else in your reactor mixed with PE?

[Jetijs]

Thanks for the info
I am experimenting with PE only at the moment, there is nothing else in the reactor. If the waxes are put through the process again, I get reasonably clear fluid with low wax content that can be filtered out. After that the fuel stays yellow/orange/brownish and does not dargen over time. I have a sample my friend made a year ago - it is still the same color and brightness
The only liquid sample from PE that turned dark after a short while was the fuel drained from the system at the very end of the process and at temperatures higher than 440 degree celsius At first it was dark red like cola and totaly transparent, but the next day you could not see through even when looking at the sun through it.
Thanks,
Jetijs

[kaguar]

OK, I get it, but I believe you keep those samples in closed bottles. I`m just wandering what would happen if you had them opened for some extended period of time, or even better, have you taken any sample from your fuel tank? I mean the fuel that has been repeatedly circulated through the fuel system, reheated and cooled and exposed to the air. My fuel stays nice and shiny as well if I keep it well protected (enclosed in a dark and cold place), if you know what I mean.

[Jetijs]

Ok, I will open all my sample bottles and let you know.

[gene gene]

Hi Jetijs, Perhaps you might consider exposing only a portion of your original samples to air, saving some of the original in case you wish to do more testing at a latter date.
Gene