How to turn plastic waste into diesel fuel cheaply

[operatorX225]

Hello ASAD

Your plans for the plant are interesting. I would like to know why your not separating the kerosene fraction from the gasoline fraction? How do you intend to break the plastic down before it enters the retort.

[Asad Farooqui]

My continuous reactor

Hello ASAD

Your plans for the plant are interesting. I would like to know why your not separating the kerosene fraction from the gasoline fraction? How do you intend to break the plastic down before it enters the retort.

Hello ;
1) I can separate gasoline from kerosene .
The trick is first I collect all the gasoline fraction upto 160 celsius, than I raise the temperature of my diesel condensor upto 225-celsius to trap the kerosene fraction .

2) The machine I have to stop after 20-hours as the Ash-bin is filled-up .
My bigger machine of 2000 kg/day capacity which Iam also making will be able to run 24-hours as an Ash-removing auger is specially made for this purpose .

3) Both type of catalysts liquid & gas-phase catalysts can be used according to the end-product requirement .

[pravin]

Hello ;
1) I can separate gasoline from kerosene .
The trick is first I collect all the gasoline fraction upto 160 celsius, than I raise the temperature of my diesel condensor upto 225-celsius to trap the kerosene fraction .

2) The machine I have to stop after 20-hours as the Ash-bin is filled-up .
My bigger machine of 2000 kg/day capacity which Iam also making will be able to run 24-hours as an Ash-removing auger is specially made for this purpose .

3) Both type of catalysts liquid & gas-phase catalysts can be used according to the end-product requirement .

Hi ASAD, Congrats for the achievement. What is the R P M of screw fedder in continous reteort and how many kgs u load at a time.

[Heartburn]

Seal / gasket

this does not work for plastics and tires, been there and done that. If possible, stick with the metal to metal groove seals, this is a proven method and works every time and at any temperature. Those ropes will soak through with condensed light fractions like when solvents soak through cloth. It will drip everywhere and possibly catch on fire. Don't make the same mistakes!!!!

I got to flat surfaces that bolt together and I was thinking of using a 10 gauge copper wire ring that I would weld the ends together. What do you think ?

[Jetijs]

could work, but it must be tested. A big and flat copper washer would be better I think. Also, the more bolts on the outer diameter of the flanges, the more uniform the ring will be compressed, this less chances of leaks due to non uniform compression.

BTW. Asad! Glad to see your work progress, very impressive! Thanks for sharing!
Jetijs

[sviesaISaukstybiu]

Hi guys, I've made several attempts to produce some fuel from plastics. This is my experimental equipment, I have now included also a reflux chamber which is just above my reactor.

This is what I managed to produce so far. My first attempt to make fuel without reflux chamber produced fuel which was black in color and contained a lot of waxes. My second attempt produced fuel which is in the first jar from the right, just about that amount, and couple litres of non flamable liquid which I suspect was water. Don't know how much plastic was used for that, but when I opened the reactor there still was a lot of raw plastic in it (I used PP). This fuel looks very clear (came in the first condensor), how do I know what it is exactly and for what engines it can be used? My third attempt produced the rest of the fuel in the jars. All of them came from my first condenser, only the fuel in the plastic bottle came from the second water cooled condenser (my system has two condensers). Can you please help my identify what have I got here? Fuel in the big jar was of yellowish color (like in the bottom) once produced but after staying alone it separated - sediment went to the bottom, and nice clear liquid remained at the top - the colour is same to the tall jar next to it. They all came from the same condenser just at different intervals. At the second attempt my reflux chamber was not heated, I could hear gas bubbling but there was so little fuel condensing. On my third attempt (used 95% PP) my reflux chamber insulation went on fire and heated the reflux chamber (not sure to what temperature), my reactor was at peak temperature and at more or less at that time I got all that fuel - I could hear it coming to my condenser - and the bubbler was bubbling like crazy and as I used these gas to suplement my fire it was burning crazy as well. After my reflux chamber cooled, my reactor cooled a bit, even if I got my reactor to peak temperature again, I could hear only bubbling - almost no fuel was produced. Can anybody identify what my problem is? Why I get so little fuel? And how do I know what fuel I got and which engine diesel or petrol it is suited? Thanks

[imakebiodiesel]

Your pictures could not be accessed so Im working from what you described. It sounds as if your reflux column is not hot enough. You need to have a temperature probe in your retort and one at the top of your reflux column so that you know what is going on inside.
The easiest way to identify the various fuels is by boiling point. Weigh 100 gms of fuel into a small pan. On an electric cooker in a very well ventilated space bring the fuel up to 175C for about 30 minutes. Reweigh the fuel and the missing amount is petrol.
Repeat at 260c and the missing amount will be kerosene and the rest is diesel.

[Heartburn]

could work, but it must be tested. A big and flat copper washer would be better I think. Also, the more bolts on the outer diameter of the flanges, the more uniform the ring will be compressed, this less chances of leaks due to non uniform compression.

BTW. Asad! Glad to see your work progress, very impressive! Thanks for sharing!
Jetijs

Agreed but can't find a washer of 20" in diameter. I chopped the top off a 100Lbs propane tank and welded 2 flat flanges so I can bolt the top back on. the bolts are about 3.5" apart on the flanges. Easier to fill with tire pieces and plastic, but I'll need arm extensions to clean the bottom out lol

I've been reading the thread for a while now (at page 56 now). Started building, but I seem to get more questions as I read up, specially on the condensing side of the equation. anyways, I'll finish reading the thread before asking my questions as I did find alot of answers already posted...

thanks Jetijs for the info...

[Heartburn]

This should "do the job":
Crude Oil Distillation Process Part 1
Crude Oil Distillation Process Part 1 - YouTube
Crude Oil Distillation Process Part 2
Crude Oil Distillation Process Part 2 - YouTube

I haven't had time to do almost anything , but learning can be a usefull "tool" in time!
cheers

Also interesting a real quick test of catalyst Cracking a Hydrocarbon - YouTube

[Asad Farooqui]

v-groove

could work, but it must be tested. A big and flat copper washer would be better I think. Also, the more bolts on the outer diameter of the flanges, the more uniform the ring will be compressed, this less chances of leaks due to non uniform compression.

BTW. Asad! Glad to see your work progress, very impressive! Thanks for sharing!
Jetijs

Hello Jetijs ;
Nice to hear from you after a long time .
V-GROOVE is the best & safest thing. In my new continuous system all the reactor flanges are with V-groove. No compromise on this .
Thanks to jetijs.

The washer idea won't work , I have experimented that even if the v-groove is not perfectly made, it starts leaking specially above 300 celsius .


I would suggest not to compromise on the V-groove otherwise leakages will easily catch fire .
PLEASE DON'T RISK A FIRE

[imakebiodiesel]

Graphite/stainless steel gasket will work on a flat flange provided the bolts provide an even pressure.
This type of gasket on a standard pn16 flange with withstand 100bar at 800C, far in excess of what we need. I have mine specially cut by a gasket company at 12 euro each. They will last for several batches if you are careful with them.
The copper washer will work but the surfaces must be very clean and the washer must be annealed before use. Racing cars use plain copper head gaskets which have to withstand enormous pressures at high temperature. Your flanges will have to be very flat and very smooth to use copper successfully.
The v groove is hard to beat but must be carefully machined and well maintained to work.

[sviesaISaukstybiu]

Your pictures could not be accessed so Im working from what you described. It sounds as if your reflux column is not hot enough. You need to have a temperature probe in your retort and one at the top of your reflux column so that you know what is going on inside.
The easiest way to identify the various fuels is by boiling point. Weigh 100 gms of fuel into a small pan. On an electric cooker in a very well ventilated space bring the fuel up to 175C for about 30 minutes. Reweigh the fuel and the missing amount is petrol.
Repeat at 260c and the missing amount will be kerosene and the rest is diesel.

Hi, I fixed the links so they should work now. Thanks for explanation. I'm trying to do it with maximum simplicity so don't have any temeperature probes, and I'm burning wood so far. Maybe in the future I'll improve my design. Thanks for the way to identify fuels. Can kerosene and diesel mixture be used in diesel engines?

[operatorX225]

hello all,

Ive been running a small scale experiment using glassware to study this interesting phenomena. Today I ran my experiment using the same parameters including plastic used which is 1 milk jug. The only different between this run and the other runs is I added a small reflux bulb to make the process more efficient. as I got to 380 degrees C the end of my condenser plugged off with paraffin wax. Im just alittle confused as to why all of a sudden this happened to me.

figured it out. My plant experience kicked in on this one. My temperatures were very slowly creeping up in the 360-370 range. So I added more heat...apparently enough to cause overlap to happen. Overlap happens when you apply to much heat to the heavies in a distillation column and boil them out along with lights with to much heat for the reflux to absorb thus carrying over uncracked paraffin vapor to the condenser where it solidifies and causes what happened to me! lesson learned, GRADUALLY raise heat on this stuff guys! or you will get carryover of heavies that have not finished the cracking process cause your vapors to have no place to go but BOOM or in my case pop the stopper off and light off the excess vapors in a giant flame throwing event! kinda cool and scary at the same time.

[imakebiodiesel]

I got a look at your pictures. Im all for keeping things simple but there a couple of things you should add to your outfit. Without temperature measurement its impossible to control the process. I have included a link to a suitable probe on ebay. These come with a threaded insert that can be welded into a 10mm hole in your retort. You can buy a cheap digital thermometer from China for about 6 euro to go with them. You will need 2 one for the retort and one for the top of the vertical pipe which is acting as a reflux column.
Your reflux column would work better if it was larger diameter and packed with stainless steel potscrubs to increase the internal surface area. The horizontal pipe should slope downwards to the condenser to prevent fully cracked condensate flowing back into the retort. Ill sketch a possible layout and post it later.
EGT EXHAUST GAS TEMPERATURE SENSOR PROBE,UNIVERSAL FIT, K-Type Thermocouple, for | eBay

[imakebiodiesel]

Here is the sketch.


On older vehicles, pre 2002, especially those with indirect injection, you can have up to 20% kerosene in your diesel. In newer common rail type diesel engines you can have none at all.