How to turn plastic waste into diesel fuel cheaply

[rozier56]

Derek

That drawing is far too simple! the trick is the cutter blade design and motor speed. Been there and tried it.Busy trying to perfect it.If you make a proposal please be a little bit more specific.

[lowriderzzz]

That drawing is far too simple! the trick is the cutter blade design and motor speed. Been there and tried it.Busy trying to perfect it.If you make a proposal please be a little bit more specific.

Initially I'm about to try with 220V cable drill as a motor and 5cm length of blade on the one side, so in total = 10cm.

Still thinking what exact blade to choose.

What about you? What have you tried with ?

[Excalibur]

3D animation of plastics granulator
Don't underestimate the HP required to drive a granulator. 6HP would be a very small one.... but possibly depending on the size of your intended feedstock for the granulator? Perhaps petrol engine powered would be a good solution. All the ones I've worked on have metal detectors as a small piece of included steel does big damage. A redundant industrial granulator repowered by petrol engine could be the ticket.
Good luck. I hope you can come up with a good cheap solution.

[sunilkm153]

motor oil depolymerisation

Thank you guys
A good thing is that you should get already shredded plastic from recycling companies very cheap. For example, I got 1000kg of sgredded plastic for around 50$, if all of this is turned into fuel, I get around one ton of diesel. Also the leftover small amount of charcoal can be used by pressing it into briquettes and burning it later in a stove. So you get all kinds of useful products from garbage and nothing is wasted Also waste motor oil can be depolimerized by the same process into diesel

some commercial processors suggest mix of waste motor oil and plastics have you tested the same

[Excalibur]

some commercial processors suggest mix of waste motor oil and plastics have you tested the same

Works for me. Use what you have. Both are hydrocarbon.

[Beyond Biodiesel]

I expect there is a tendency for single-ingredient catalysts to preferentially react with particular molecular lengths. But could it be said that most catalysts will cut whichever hydrocarbon molecule bumps into it?
I am after the diesel fraction. So if I want to minimise the off-gas and naptha fractions wouldn't I add the catalyst to the retort / reflux column only after all the fractions down to diesel have been distilled off? I will use WMO as feedstock so I only need to boil / distil off the fractions down to diesel, then add the catalyst to the system to cut the remaining longer oily molecules into shorter ones. This way I prevent my target fuel profile from bumping into the catalyst and being cut into naptha and off-gas.
Does that sound reasonable?

Col, it is a non-issue, because most of the diesel fuel will have evaporated off from your WMO feed stock before you reach cracking temperatures. So, just put the catalyst in the retort with your WMO, and bring up the temperature, and never bring up the temperature too fast, or you will just have boil-over. I take 2 hours to get ot cracking temperature, and it seems to work fine for my 5-gallon (20L) batch WMO retort.

I am also not at all interested in cracking WMO, because I just mix the light fractions with the heavy fractions to make a middle fraction blend that is equivalent to diesel fuel. For example 10-40 motor oil, plus 20% gasoline equals diesel fuel.

[jonathan]

retort sealant

hello good morning everyone did some one try sealant like this for retort? it says 1000 degrees FLUESEAL HIGH TEMPERATURE ADHESIVE SEALANT NOT SILICONE | eBay

[yowenn]

Waouh

Very interesting subject.
If anyone sells this kind of equipment lemme know.

[Beyond Biodiesel]

hello good morning everyone did some one try sealant like this for retort? it says 1000 degrees FLUESEAL HIGH TEMPERATURE ADHESIVE SEALANT NOT SILICONE | eBay

Interesting link, thanks. It is probably Sodium Silicate. Sodium Silicate (water glass) will seal any two metals, or even glass to metal, and it is cheap.

[jonathan]

retort sealant

l find gasket like paper its about 1.2mm thick but l am worry about leakage

[sunilkm153]

pictures of asad plant

Thanks for sharing pictures and congrats for your work !

Stainless steel nuts may seize more easily than regular steel ones . Using copper grease (anti seize grease) could be a good thing for high temp use.

I am experiencing incredible strong deposits into my first diesel batch, it was sitting here for about 3 to 4 weeks.

I really need to find a good anti-oxidant, not easy to get here.

I've got an lubricating oil factory nearby, they have antioxydant for oil, not diesel. They want to ask a lot of questions about my use for that, of course I'd never tell.

I wonder if the antioxydant they use for oil could work fine for my home made diesel ?

i nowhere found pictures for asad's unit please let me know where the pictures are
regards
sunilkm153

[Col]

some clarification...thx

Col, it is a non-issue, because most of the diesel fuel will have evaporated off from your WMO feed stock before you reach cracking temperatures. So, just put the catalyst in the retort with your WMO, and bring up the temperature, and never bring up the temperature too fast, or you will just have boil-over. I take 2 hours to get ot cracking temperature, and it seems to work fine for my 5-gallon (20L) batch WMO retort.

I am also not at all interested in cracking WMO, because I just mix the light fractions with the heavy fractions to make a middle fraction blend that is equivalent to diesel fuel. For example 10-40 motor oil, plus 20% gasoline equals diesel fuel.

Thanks for the feedback guys.
BBD - So, the right catalyst will not react with the gas, naptha and majority of the vapourised diesel molecules passing through it below cracking temperatures? I remember now that has been mentioned here previously. So I need to find a catalyst to cut molecules which are longer than diesel and confirm by test that it will begin cutting at temperatures above say 330C (boiling range of BP Automotive Diesel is 180-380C) so 75% of the vapourised diesel molecules will pass by unaffected (not be cut into naptha or gas). These vapours should pass by the catalyst without coking it up right?
Also - if you mix 20% gasoline with 10-40 motor oil I understand you can get the viscosity spot on but won't it lower the flash point down to below that of diesel? Or are F.P. and S.G. it not too important in an older diesel (like mine)?
IMBD - you mentioned Zeolites including synthetic ones have a single fixed pore size and will crack a very narrow range of molecules. So if I find the right Zeolite / catalyst I can expect to run a single reflux with one gas phase contact catalyst passing all the vapourised fuel through it with no catalytic activity until the temperature is reached which corresponds to the length of molecule which boils off at that temperature? and the narrow cracking catalyst won't be fouled / coked by lighter vapours early in the boiling?
Also - the reason you add a portion of high activity catalyst is to get the cracking started as soon as the retort temperature has reached cracking temperature right? This way you're not wasting heat waiting for the cracking to start. But on consecutive fills of the retort, while using the same batch of catalyst, you wouldn't need the high activity catalyst in the mix because the low activity catalyst is already activated right? (and the high activity catalyst is exhausted by this stage).

Thank you for your help and patience.

Col

[Excalibur]

won't it lower the flash point down to below that of diesel? Or are F.P. and S.G. it not too important in an older diesel (like mine)?

Yes, it will lower the flash point but that's not always going to present too much of a problem. What's more likely to be an issue is the restarting of the engine once it's shutdown hot and left for 5minutes+. It appears heat-soak can create bubbles in the IP and injectors.
There's a number of if's and but's, but much would depend on the boiling point of the gasoline, climate, vehicle design etc. Recently I tested my local gasoline boiling point and found it was 40'c while the US gasoline is 80'c. This is one reason why experiences can vary.

[imakebiodiesel]

Coking is a direct result of cracking. If fully cracked fuel molecules are passed through a catalyst no coking will occur.
When cracking plastic most of the work is done thermally , however the thermally cracked plastic molecules vary widely in length C25 to C150 so a catalyst with a wide range of pore size, and acidity is needed.

Im not sure this is the case with wmo. From BBs experience it would seem that quite a lot of fuel can be extracted with simple distillation. The residue after that stage will be motor oil which is a narrow range of hydrocarbon C25 to C40? I think this could be efficiently cracked by one carefully matched catalyst but dont take my word on this as I have little experience with wmo.

[Beyond Biodiesel]

l find gasket like paper its about 1.2mm thick but l am worry about leakage

I do not believe that a paper gasket can handle cracking temperatures; however, a graphite gasket can.

Thanks for the feedback guys.
BBD - So, the right catalyst will not react with the gas, naptha and majority of the vapourised diesel molecules passing through it below cracking temperatures? I remember now that has been mentioned here previously. So I need to find a catalyst to cut molecules which are longer than diesel and confirm by test that it will begin cutting at temperatures above say 330C (boiling range of BP Automotive Diesel is 180-380C) so 75% of the vapourised diesel molecules will pass by unaffected (not be cut into naptha or gas). These vapours should pass by the catalyst without coking it up right?

Cracking temperature is 800F (425c) the vapor pressure for the light fractions is well below that, so if you take your retort up slowly, then all of the light fractions will leave the retort long before cracking takes place.

Also - if you mix 20% gasoline with 10-40 motor oil I understand you can get the viscosity spot on but won't it lower the flash point down to below that of diesel? Or are F.P. and S.G. it not too important in an older diesel (like mine)?

Flash point is irrelevant in any diesel fuel run on any diesel engine. All you need do is get the viscosity/specific gravity close to that of diesel fuel and you will be able to run your fuel blend on any diesel engine.

IMBD - you mentioned Zeolites including synthetic ones have a single fixed pore size and will crack a very narrow range of molecules. So if I find the right Zeolite / catalyst I can expect to run a single reflux with one gas phase contact catalyst passing all the vapourised fuel through it with no catalytic activity until the temperature is reached which corresponds to the length of molecule which boils off at that temperature? and the narrow cracking catalyst won't be fouled / coked by lighter vapours early in the boiling?

Cracking takes place at 425c, all of the light fractions will have long passed the refluxing zone, so your question is irrelevant.

Also - the reason you add a portion of high activity catalyst is to get the cracking started as soon as the retort temperature has reached cracking temperature right? This way you're not wasting heat waiting for the cracking to start. But on consecutive fills of the retort, while using the same batch of catalyst, you wouldn't need the high activity catalyst in the mix because the low activity catalyst is already activated right? (and the high activity catalyst is exhausted by this stage).

Thank you for your help and patience.

Col

Catalysts are "activated" by driving off water, which they absorb from the atmosphere and carbon,which they acquire through cracking. Therefore, all you need do to "activated" a catalyst such as zeolite is to heat it in the presence of oxygen to 1200F (650c).

Also, catalysts can be bought for various uses. They are typically sold by the Angstrom, which is the pore size. The smaller the pore size the smaller the molecule that they will crack your large molecules into.