How to turn plastic waste into diesel fuel cheaply

[joan27]

sorry for the picture..but do you think it is really possible for us to collect those uncondensed gas by putting them on a gas jar..we are going to put also a vacuum pump..so that the gas will come in into the gas jar, instead of putting a safety bubbler, or burning those uncondensed gas,we are going to collect them,.any reaction pls???? we are going to present this design tomorrow on our panel.

[gowriel]

I forgot to ask you : how do you stop "the reactor"?
Because from what I've read here http://www.energeticforum.com/200052-post1579.html

,there is a danger of "a small explosion" if air gets into the reactor while it's still hot and hidrogen still "lurks around" in a free form...
Also,I can't seem to find that wood fired cracking unit you mentioned...
The "secret" is the heat retaining capacity around the reactor,controlling the air that the fire receives and the flue of course!
Other than that,even Jetijs showed it clearly:
in order to maintain a "normal" and continously/steady reactor temperature,one must "trap the heat" around the reactor in an efficient way!
Or at least that's what I understood!
But he did this with a very good insulation made out of alumina bricks,and rock wool and that goes to show the importance of this "heat trapping" principle if one wants "to cook its plastic" well!
I'll probably use a steel container of 10 mm thick steel,rectangular of the size 30cm/30cm/45 cm as I have a bigger sheet of steel like that lying around in the garden!
The capacity in liters should be 40 liters and at what density plastics have it'll probably be around 30 kg's of shreded plastic to go inside it!
The heating should be with wood ,a labirint of chamotte around the reactor ,controled air intake and flue exhaust!
Can't go wrong with this way!
Oh,and here in Romania we intensively use tile wood stoves,so a hafnermeister is easy to found if I really want good advices in building this reactor/"stove"!
I preffer to go around without electricity as in "hard times" or emergency situations electricity might not be available but the need for fuel in HIGH NEED!
If you're interested in tiled stoves read this:
Popular Science - Google Cărți
"Some" say they are THE BEST way to burn "things" and get heat out in the room;in this case in the reactor!
And after all we are talking about 500 year old "technology",tried and tested numerous times!
By now things should be clear about tiled stoves,and even modern wood stoves have steatite in them;I "wonder why"?
Right now I want to finish those condensers;3 as Jetijs did!
Cheers!

[Excalibur]

Also,I can't seem to find that wood fired cracking unit you mentioned..!

This post here This was my 3rd test rig attempt. I started simple and have been learning ever since. This set up is very basic. A retort inside a simple furnace. A reflux with terracotta inside. Two condensers followed by a bubbler.

There'd be enough room inside the turk drum for a layer of refractory. It's a good idea. Great food for thought. Thanks for the reminder.

[gowriel]

I wouldn't do anything without a good refractory layer of bricks all around AND on the top or at least rock wool in thick layer on the top!
It's impossible to maintain ANY temperature if you can't keep the heat in one place...
My opinion...
After all,look carefully at how Jetijs did his project;simple and efficient not like how I see "around here lately"/in the last pages with more complicated things ,even a vacuum pump...
I mean,I'm not very rich but not very poor, but this thread is suppose to be for those exactly like me: not too rich not too poor, because no rich guy would even look(or try...) to build /do such thing...
He'll just go fill up the gas tank at the station and that's it!
A poor guy like in Africa in some places won't even have internet or acces to a good welder or machinist...
SO: I like the KISS principle (keep it stupid simple),wich has been proven to work and yield results!
Other than that,just go buy a readily built instalation and that's it!

[amenokami]

my problem, please help me

Actually, we just depend on the coils generated heat so we don't know how much heat it produce. my real problem is, we don't have that digital control for temperature because we cant afford it. we're only students and there's no one here that supports our project because they think that the process is so inefficient. i'm asking for help for those who have spare temperature controller.thank you so much.

-iamafilipino-

[Marso Green]

sorry for the picture..but do you think it is really possible for us to collect those uncondensed gas by putting them on a gas jar..we are going to put also a vacuum pump..so that the gas will come in into the gas jar, instead of putting a safety bubbler, or burning those uncondensed gas,we are going to collect them,.any reaction pls???? we are going to present this design tomorrow on our panel.

Your picture is no longer viewable for some reason.

I would imagine that one of many challenges of collecting the uncondensable gases lies in maintaining correct pressure/vacuum in the system to maintain a steady flow and prevent back flow, all the while managing the stored gas. If you look around, you'll see that there are very expensive Syngas compressors out there for that purpose, which leads me to believe it's no small task. Everything I've read so far points to the fact that it's not economically feasible, and most have concluded the best energy storage is in the feedstock itself.

[Excalibur]

I wouldn't do anything without a good refractory layer of bricks all around AND on the top or at least rock wool in thick layer on the top!
It's impossible to maintain ANY temperature if you can't keep the heat in one place...
My opinion...
After all,look carefully at how Jetijs did his project;simple and efficient not like how I see "around here lately"/in the last pages with more complicated things ,even a vacuum pump...
I mean,I'm not very rich but not very poor, but this thread is suppose to be for those exactly like me: not too rich not too poor, because no rich guy would even look(or try...) to build /do such thing...
He'll just go fill up the gas tank at the station and that's it!
A poor guy like in Africa in some places won't even have internet or acces to a good welder or machinist...
SO: I like the KISS principle (keep it stupid simple),wich has been proven to work and yield results!
Other than that,just go buy a readily built instalation and that's it!

This game isn't as easy as it looks. I'm up about mk10 with test rigs now. Some of the components I've been able to recycle to subsequent set ups.
Incidently, I have kaowool plus oven type insulation on the current retort. I'm considering this iteration as a stepping stone only. Also I don't want to spend big money on parts at this early stage, especially when the rig gets retired after 1 or 2 runs. On the final iteration, maybe mk15, I'll probably go for refractory and kaowool, a heat source for the 1st condenser, enlarged watercooled condensers, flange couplings for the heat affected retort-reflux area, sight glasses to monitor flow/drip rate, much bigger retort and the list goes on.
This project is great fun. I'm like a dog with a bone. I haven't been this enthusiastic about developing something since building my dragbike.
I look forward to seeing what you come up with . The hope is we can all learn and move forward together, like one family.

[mikiskmk]

I was finished with my machine based on Jetis machine, with some differences... I have main chamber 2000 liters cylindric form and clone on angle of 40 degrees.. separated reflux with form like ball and after that i have put one big 2 meters heat exchanger (part of every store frigo) ... 100 litters bubler with air cooler and coal filter at the end of the process... i heat main chamber with 15 kw heaters 8 ant the bottom and 2 on top for making 370C... i dont use catalysts because i dont see why to use catalysts because i dont want to separate to diesel kerosine and petrol.. i have good red liquid without parafyne and it burns nice... about filter for filtering this liquid i use charcoal (before i activate it) and i have good results... but, i have some other type of liquid what separated at the bottom of the bubler... blue color liquid and clean like crystal... the mass of this liquid is heavier of water and it burns ubnormal! i steel what it is but its interesting liquid... tomorrow or this days i will attached pictures of all stuff...
second thing, when i put 100 kg separated pp i have 70-80 litters of liquid...

and after this i must say thanks for Jetjis for this forum... respect!

[Glueboy]

continuous System

Hi All,

I have been working through this thread and have found it very good. I notice that the process is based on making batches. How can you develop it to be a continuous feed system with an inline distallation columun.

I would like to have a go at this, but would want to build a continuous system over a batch system.

Can anyone help?

[Asad Farooqui]

continuous pyrolysis system

Hi All,
How can you develop it to be a continuous feed system with an inline distallation columun.

I would like to have a go at this, but would want to build a continuous system over a batch system.

Can anyone help?

Hello ;
Developing Continuous system requires a lot of time & expertise .
I have developed a continuous sytem of a capacity of 2000-liters/per day.
In next couple of Months Inshallah I will start TRIAL Production of my plant .

In collaboration with friends having 40-years of OIL-refining experience .
It can run 24-hours a day .
It took me a period of One-year hardwork & a Big amount of money to through away.
Before making it I experimented with 5-6 small units. Only than I learned how to do it .

The beauty of a Continuous sytem is that it takes ONLY 30-seconds not minutes to pyrolyse the feedstock .
Note a thumb rule : Shorter the pyrolysis time the better the Fuel Quality .

Frankly speaking continuous systems are feasible ONLY for commercial purposes.
Not for backyard scientists who want a small unit to meet his personal requirements .

So first decide, you want to go on Commercial scale OR just not.


Regards

ASAD FAROOQUI
ahl_asadfarooqui@yahoo.com

[gowriel]

Plastic waste into Diesel fuel production, Plastic Depolarisation Unit PDU

Hi All,

I have been working through this thread and have found it very good. I notice that the process is based on making batches. How can you develop it to be a continuous feed system with an inline distallation columun.

I would like to have a go at this, but would want to build a continuous system over a batch system.

Can anyone help?

A continous system is expensive and "out of the range" of this topic...
I would say this topic is for those in need of a cheap source of diesel fuel just to go around with their daily/monthly bills...
Other than that , you could talk/phone this swiss guy who really did a wonderfull instalation:
Plastic waste into Diesel fuel production, Plastic Depolarisation Unit PDU
Plastic waste into Diesel fuel production, Plastic Depolarisation Unit PDU - YouTube
convert plastic waste into Diesel fuel D2
p.s. : oil companies "might" not like the ideea of SMART HUMANS that know how to manufacture their own fuel out of trash...
Put yourself into their billion dollar "skin" well "maintained" with lots of crude oil and their MANY secondary products...

[mrwoodgas]

here are a few pics of my project

[Babataku]

Charcoal Retort

Had a chance to fire my unit today for the 1st time... Temperature controller was faulty and had to do without as I was eager to test it out.

Retort is 50ltr capacity. I half filled it with 25ltr waste motor oil, as I have this in abundance and I intend to use this as feedstock. I have one condenser and a pipe to a water bubbler after it.

now I loaded my charcoals, fired them and put my retort and waited for results. After about 10mins i got some gases in the bubbler, then after about 30mins the oil was now boiling, I could hear it bubbling inside the tank as it was boiling. then it went quiet after about a further 20mins of intense boiling... all this time I was adding more charcoals and the wind was keeping the temp going...

now I decided to stop the process after about a total of 1 and half hours when my neighbour came asking as he could smell some strong gasses from my experiment. yes i could also smell some strong petrol gasses. for my efforts, I only collected 500mls of some dark black fuel. it smells like petrol.

im not sure what the problem is, Too much heat or I didn't heat enough? it will be weeks before I get another temperature controller...Any help PLEASE im desperate to know what went wrong

has anyone had a similar experience? boiling oil but no diesel collected?

any thoughts...

[Babataku]

Charcoal Retort

I have just finished the test run, I am waiting for the retort to cool down. only then will I know how much oil is left in tank after my experiment...

[Asad Farooqui]

Wmo

I have just finished the test run, I am waiting for the retort to cool down. only then will I know how much oil is left in tank after my experiment...

Hello ;
WMO is the easiest / qucikist to pyrolyse provided it is heated upto a temperature range 350-400 celcius .

What went wrong in your system .
1) Without temperature indicators it's not possible to know where you are heading .
My guess is that you were just heating/boiling WMO , it never reached the Pyrolysis temperature .
I have seen WMO recycling companies using WMO as there heat transfer oil .
Meaning they heat it AROUND 200 celcius only & transfer heat for many days.

2) After complete pyrolysis of WMO only 2-5% carbon Ash should be left in your reactor, nothing else .
I guess when you open-up your reactor after cooling-off you will find most of your WMO still present in the reactor .

3) Was the LID of your reactor Insulated/covered with glass wool ???



ASAD FAROOQUI