How to turn plastic waste into diesel fuel cheaply

[Beyond Biodiesel]

Hi there. Does anyone uses PV solar panels as a source for electricity heating.

I plan to buy 10m2 of PV panels (6 pieces of 240Wp each = 1440W), and I'm trying to estimate how big unit it could power up.

According to the original Jetijs device he states that for 60kg unit he uses 6KW.
So for me for 1440W=1.44KW will be able to power a 1,4kg unit. According to the simple math. Am I correct ?

However I've not deducted other energy losses from inverter etc.

Does anyone has some more experience with solar or electrical heating in general ?

Thanks

Yes, I have been running my WMO distillation unit for almost 1.5 years on solar. I have 30 130w unisolar panels, and now 3 3500watt PowerBright inverters and 12 220AH 6 volt batteries making up a 24 volt battery bank.

My WMO distillation unit has run on about 1500watts, and it takes about 4 hours to complete the distillation of 5 gallons (20L) of WMO.

Peek power gain with my 30 130watt solar panels during the summer has been 120AMPs, or 3000watts during the 4 hours of peek gain from 10AM to 2PM.

After the spring equinox the gain fell off to 90AMPs, which is about 2000 watts during the peek gain hours of only 11AM-1PM, so there is simply not enough gain now to run my WMO distillation unit, so I have dismantled it and I am rebuilding it. I also have plans to improve my solar system so that I will have enough gain even in the winter to run the unit.

Also, my future upgrades for my WMO distillation unit are likely to require 6KW, and possibly as much as 21KW in short bursts, this is in part why I have 3 3500watt inverters.

One strategy that I plan to employ is staged heating of my condenser traps. The boiler will be the first system to receive heat. Once it comes up to its control point, then the PID controllers will introduce a duty cycle that will quickly become 50% or less on/off. At that point I plan to turn on the heaters for my first trap. This means at points in this cycle the watt demand could be 3000 watts.

All of the heated condenser traps will have been heated by the vapor stream coming from the retort/boiler, so that bring the first trap up to its control point should not take a lot of power, or time. Once the first trap is at its control point, then the boiler PID controllers will be reduced to the first traps control point. At this point the heaters for the second heated trap will be turned on, and so forth until the last heated trap has achieved its control point, then turned off.

I have 3 heated condenser traps. each 5-gallon (20L) boiler and condenser has 1500 watt heaters. This means at any given point all of the heaters could be on for a second or so, which means a momentary power demand of 6000watts.

[lowriderzzz]

That sounds like a nice design. Is that the inverter that you are using ?

I assume it is pure sine wave.

[Beyond Biodiesel]

That sounds like a nice design. Is that the inverter that you are using ?

I assume it is pure sine wave.

Yes, except mine are green. Last spring I upgraded my solar system, which brought the gain up to 120AMPs, two weeks after that my first inverter blew. I blew one every 2 weeks until I realized that I had too much gain and not enough batteries, so I installed 8 more batteries, and I have had no more inverters burn up since August 1st. Power Bright repaired them all, that is how I ended up with 3. You can read more about my solar system at this link.
Solar energy

[octavio]

question

someone could tell me, why iam only producing wax?
tanks

[Excalibur]

Yes, the problem is common for those starting out and is because your reflux is either missing or ineffective. For you a study of the reflux principles is the key to understanding the problem and the solution. There are hundreds of posts on this very forum covering a variety of aspects on the subject of reflux.

Here is an example of a reflux vessel. In brief, a reflux's job is to recycle the vapors that have too long carbon chains by automatically allowing them to condense and subsequently run back to the retort for further cracking.

[ashiki]

I have ran almost 6 baches of plastic bags till now. but the last batch was a bit problamatic.
it took more temparature to crack .
and also left behind something like burnd paper in my retort.
i am sure that i havnt put any paper in it,only polyethene bags.some was so colourful.
would it be dye?or something else?

[Beyond Biodiesel]

I have ran almost 6 baches of plastic bags till now. but the last batch was a bit problamatic.
it took more temparature to crack .

Either you have a problem with your heaters, or your retort is getting coated with coke. Coke is an excellent insulator, so the thicker the layer of coke that forms on the inside of your retort, the more heat you will need to dump into it, until your cracking runs will just start to fail.

and also left behind something like burnd paper in my retort.
i am sure that i havnt put any paper in it,only polyethene bags.some was so colourful.
would it be dye?or something else?

The "burned paper" might be a coating on one of those polyethylene bags, or it is a left over bag that did not melt.

[ashiki]

Either you have a problem with your heaters, or your retort is getting coated with coke. Coke is an excellent insulator, so the thicker the layer of coke that forms on the inside of your retort, the more heat you will need to dump into it, until your cracking runs will just start to fail.

Thanks BB
I think its the coke and im going to clean it!
and another doubt,is it possible to fasten the process?
i am having a delay of 45 mins. to get to 350°C. any thing i could do to decrease this time?
i can neither increase the number of heaters nor the power.i am currently running at 2KW and its what i think is safe to play with!

I mean any catalysts to do pyrolisis at low temparatures?

[Beyond Biodiesel]

Thanks BB
I think its the coke and im going to clean it!
and another doubt,is it possible to fasten the process?
i am having a delay of 45 mins. to get to 350°C. any thing i could do to decrease this time?

45 minutes to get to 350°C is very fast. I expect that you are not measuring your fluid, but the heater. The heater is going to get to operating temperature quicker than the fluid. My WMO unit takes about 2 hours to get the fluid to 400c. That seems fast enough to me.

i can neither increase the number of heaters nor the power.i am currently running at 2KW and its what i think is safe to play with!

How much volume are you dumping 2KW into? I am using about 2KW for 20L. I could put more heaters on, but I do not have the power. So I use a lot of insulation to do more with less.

I mean any catalysts to do pyrolisis at low temparatures?

Cracking temperature is 400C. As far as I know there is no "low temperature" catalyst.

[lowriderzzz]

Yes, except mine are green. Last spring I upgraded my solar system, which brought the gain up to 120AMPs, two weeks after that my first inverter blew. I blew one every 2 weeks until I realized that I had too much gain and not enough batteries, so I installed 8 more batteries, and I have had no more inverters burn up since August 1st. Power Bright repaired them all, that is how I ended up with 3. You can read more about my solar system at this link.
Solar energy

I did't knew you use batteries. Do you think it will be possible to use direct solar energy via the pv panels to heat the retort in a bright sunny day without the use battery stack ?

btw link is not working...

[ashiki]

BB,my retort is 19 ltr. 2kw.
it takes roughly 1 hr to get to 400°C
and i am measuring the retort temparature(thermowell)
,not the heater temp.

[octavio]

tanks for the tip

[rozier56]

rozier56

Hi Guy's, Has Any Body Out There Got An Idea Of What Production Rate Can Or Should Be Achieved,assuming You Have The Correct Cracking Temp Of 4oo*c.in The Retort. I.e.ltrs/hr.
Thanks.

[Beyond Biodiesel]

I did't knew you use batteries. Do you think it will be possible to use direct solar energy via the pv panels to heat the retort in a bright sunny day without the use battery stack ?

Theoretically, if you have the gain, then you could directly dump the watts into resistance heaters. You could even dump the DC right into your heaters without a charge controller or inverter in the way.

However, most resistance heaters are designed for 110 or 220 V. You could solve the voltage problem by wiring your solar panels in series to get the desired voltage.

btw link is not working...

Yes, the forum is down while it is being moved to another server. It hopefully will be back up in a few days.

BB,my retort is 19 ltr. 2kw.
it takes roughly 1 hr to get to 400°C
and i am measuring the retort temparature(thermowell)
,not the heater temp.

I am impressed.

Hi Guy's, Has Any Body Out There Got An Idea Of What Production Rate Can Or Should Be Achieved,assuming You Have The Correct Cracking Temp Of 4oo*c.in The Retort. I.e.ltrs/hr.
Thanks.

I get roughly 1L/hr from start to finish, but nothing for the first hour while the temperature rises. So, the rate is probably 2L/hr during the peak cracking/distillation period.

[rozier56]

Thanks Beyond,seems very low,is that with wmo? i am cracking ldpe and concerned about the low production rate.one more question is what Kw/energy is required to achieve the desired cracking point. i am burning a 50kw/gas burner to achieve the 400*c plus, how does tha t compare with others out there?