How to turn plastic waste into diesel fuel cheaply

[Excalibur]

Welcome bgKiril and congratulations.

To separate, simply hold the fuel at a temperature that forces the gasoline to evaporate. This vapor can then be condensed, becoming the gasoline fraction. I suggest try 80*C and hold for as long as required to drive off the lighter fraction. At a later stage, you can do this "on the fly" as the fuel is being made. The benefit is that it doesn't have to be re-heated so saves energy.

The fuel will need to be filtered as it will have a lot of fine particles too small to see. Use a centrifuge or a series of filters starting from coarse to fine. I suggest each method should be finalized with a 1 micron filter pass. Allowing the fuel to settle will help separate the heaviest particles, saving the filters from early blocking. In any case it would be prudent to filter down to at least one step below the onboard filter of the vehicle it will be used in.

Hope this helps.

[Beyond Biodiesel]

Hi Dudes ,

First of all, greetings from Bulgaria I have made a machine similar to yours and had tested with car tires. I get liquid shown to the photos.

Welcome bgKiril, thanks for posting a photo of your results of pyrolysis of tires.

My question is how to clean that liquide oil ? I understand that that liquide i got is both diesel and gasoline. How to seperate them ?
I tried with putting active charcoal but nothing happen. Is there any chemical that could to clean that liquide from any hard parts inside ?

Cleaning and separating, or fractionating, are 2 different subjects. As Excalibur, said, you can fractionate your distillate by creating a series of heated containers down stream from your retort, where you cook your tires. Each heated container will trap fractions that condense at those temperatures. The temperatures that are commonly used for fractions are: 300c, 200c, 100c, 25c, then 0c. This is what I do.

You should notice, as many of us have, that the further your fractions get from the retort, the clearer the liquid. The reason for this, is frequently small particles of carbon come from the retort in the form of boil-over.

One solution therefore to clean up your collected fluids is re-distill them, and you are likely to find a cleaner, clearer liquid. It takes about 3 stages of distilling to eliminate the carbon boil-over.

Otherwise, as Excalibur said, you can settle, filter, and centrifuge your liquid to get it cleaner.

[viesis2]

Sveiks !

Mēs veidojam jaunu start-up biznesa ideju, par šāda tipa rūpnīcu, kuru taisamies atvērt Vācijā.Meklējam cilvēku, kurš zin šajā jomā ko dara un ir apņēmības pilns strādāt šī projekta realizācijā. Mēs esam jauni studenti, bet ar iespēju dabūt financējumu šim projektam.Vēlētos uzzināt ko vairāk par šo tēmu. Ja ir interese un ir vēlme strādāt, padodiet ziņu viesis2@inbox.lv !

Paldies !

The process is really simple, it is similar to how alcohol is made. If you heat plastic waste in non oxygen environment, it will melt, but will not burn. After it has melted, it will start to boil and evaporate, you just need to put those vapors through a cooling pipe and when cooled the vapors will condense to a liquid and some of the vapors with shorter hydrocarbon lengths will remain as a gas. The exit of the cooling pipe is then going through a bubbler containing water to capture the last liquid forms of fuel and leave only gas that is then burned. If the cooling of the cooling tube is sufficient, there will be no fuel in the bubbler, but if not, the water will capture all the remaining fuel that will float above the water and can be poured off the water. On the bottom of the cooling tube is a steel reservoir that collects all the liquid and it has a release valve on the bottom so that the liquid fuel can be poured out. Here are some pictures to better understand the design:









This device works on electricity (3 phase), it has six nichrome coils as heating elements and consumes a total of 6kW (1kW each coil). The coils are turned on and off by three solid state relays, one for each phase, the relays are controlled by a digital thermostat with a temperature sensor just a bit below the lid, so that the vapor temperature can be monitored. You need to heat the plastic slowly to about 350 degrees and just wait till it does the magic. Our device has a capacity of 50 liters and can hold about 30 kg of shredded plastic. The process takes about 4 hours, but it can be shortened considerably by tweaking the design a bit. As I said, this makes a liquid fuel that can be used as multifuel, that means it can be used on diesel engines and also on gasoline engines, but we still need to test it will work on gasoline. It works for diesel engines just fine, that has already been tested. There is a difference in what plastic you use, if you use polyethylene (plastic cans, plastic foil, and all kind of flexible non break plastics) you will get out liquid fuel that will solidify as it cools into paraffin, it is still good for diesel engines as long as you use a heated fuel tank, because it needs to be heated just about at 30 degrees celsius to be liquid and transparent. If you don't want that, you can put the paraffin through the device for one more time and you will chop those hydrocarbons even smaller and half of the paraffin will turn to liquid fuel and other half will remain a paraffin, but much denser and will melt at higher temperatures, this is the stuff you can make candles out of and it does not smell at all when burned, maybe a bit like candles. But if you use polypropylene (computer monitor cases, printer cases, other plastics that break easily), you get out only liquid fuel, no paraffin at all. All you need is just filter the fuel out of solids and you good to go and put it in your gas tank. We have made the analysis and it is almost the perfect diesel fraction. It has no acids or alkalines in it, like fuel from tires does. The unit in the pictures can convert about 60 kg of plastic into 60 liters of fuel in one day. Other methods of heating the reactor can be employed, electricity is just easier to work with and control. Some Japanese companies manufacture such devices, but their prices for this size unit is more than 100 000$, our home made device cost us 900$ max. We use aluminum oxide bricks to insulate the heat, they are light as foam and can be easily cut in any shape, but any kind of insulator can be used. The bricks make the highest costs for this device. It can also be made using liquid fuel burners to heat the reactor, this will enable to make the device self sustainable by using about 10-15% of the produced fuel along with the produced gas. A small farm can use a device this size and make fuel for itself by converting plastic waste to fuel, farms have very much plastic waste and it is a big problem, at least in my country. Our next goal is to make the same thing possible using biomass, every farm could then use old leafs, wet grass, saw dust and all kind of biomass and gasify it into tar like substance that can then be put through the pyrolysis device and turned into biodiesel. But we will see about that. Here are some fuel samples:

These are samples from polyethylene, in the first run out comes mostly paraffin like liquid that solidifies at temperatures below 20 degrees celsius, the other clear sample is from the same paraffin that is gone through the process one more time. Will post more pictures and a video later.
Thanks,
Jetijs

[Col]

Activated carbon and polymer beads

I tried with putting active charcoal but nothing happen.

Hi bgKiril
I have used activated carbon on black oil/diesel and it works well if you have the right pore size. I tried a GS1300 and was told I should expect the AC to clean the product up in about 20-30 mins. I had to wait over night to get a decent result. The longer I left it the better the result. I didn't try it beyond that so I don't know if the AC will last very long in this application. I recall someone else posting somewhere they didn't get much life out of their AC tests. The salesman did tell me to filter the fluid to 10 micron first so the suspended sediment would not plug the tiny pores in the AC. Perhaps the other fellow did not filter his sample first so the AC just plugged up with 'sludge' and was never given a fair go. I found that the AC both 'bleached' the fluid to a pale yellow colour and minimised the odour. I am concerned a little about the coarse nature of AC, the fine particles are about 1-2 micron, up to about 20 micron, very sharp, hard and abrasive, I don't want to put that through my engine. Even though I filter the light waste oil to 1 micron (nominal) for my burner at work the spray nozzle still wears out. The fine metal particles eventually wear the nozzle orifice too large for a good spray pattern and I get flame failure. Do you want that in your vehicle?

Alternatively you could have a look at this polymer bead product - Bluegrass Fuel Systems, LLC - The FP Filtration Media
I have not tried it, at this stage I hope I don't need it. Once I've put a system together and done a few batches I'll have a better idea. It may suit a blender very well? I am hoping the process of cracking / distillation will drop most of the fines and darkness out if I can avoid boilover.

All the best
Col

[Beyond Biodiesel]

Hi bgKiril
I have used activated carbon on black oil/diesel and it works well if you have the right pore size. I tried a GS1300 and was told I should expect the AC to clean the product up in about 20-30 mins. I had to wait over night to get a decent result. The longer I left it the better the result. I didn't try it beyond that so I don't know if the AC will last very long in this application. I recall someone else posting somewhere they didn't get much life out of their AC tests. The salesman did tell me to filter the fluid to 10 micron first so the suspended sediment would not plug the tiny pores in the AC. Perhaps the other fellow did not filter his sample first so the AC just plugged up with 'sludge' and was never given a fair go. I found that the AC both 'bleached' the fluid to a pale yellow colour and minimised the odour. I am concerned a little about the coarse nature of AC, the fine particles are about 1-2 micron, up to about 20 micron, very sharp, hard and abrasive, I don't want to put that through my engine. Even though I filter the light waste oil to 1 micron (nominal) for my burner at work the spray nozzle still wears out. The fine metal particles eventually wear the nozzle orifice too large for a good spray pattern and I get flame failure. Do you want that in your vehicle?

Alternatively you could have a look at this polymer bead product - Bluegrass Fuel Systems, LLC - The FP Filtration Media
I have not tried it, at this stage I hope I don't need it. Once I've put a system together and done a few batches I'll have a better idea. It may suit a blender very well? I am hoping the process of cracking / distillation will drop most of the fines and darkness out if I can avoid boilover.

All the best
Col

Thanks, Col, for posting your positive experience with using activated charcoal to clean up WMO. If I knew it could do such a good job, then it is doubtful I would have bothered with making a WMO distillation system. Even so, if it works, then I see no reason to distill WMO.

The method that I would employ would be to blend the WMO with gasoline at about 20%, leave it to settle for about 1 month, pour off the thin WMO from the sediments, then pour it into a bucket of activated charcoal and leave there for some period of time, yet to be determined, then screen out the activated charcoal, then filter down to 1-micron, and/or use a centrifuge.

[gerardo]

this is my set up

Watch my set up, go to YouTube and then search for franciso Gerardo nungaray. a few stuff are in english the ones in spanish I can help you to translate

[Col]

Activated charcoal and oil fuel cleaning

Thanks, Col, for posting your positive experience with using activated charcoal to clean up WMO. If I knew it could do such a good job, then it is doubtful I would have bothered with making a WMO distillation system. Even so, if it works, then I see no reason to distill WMO.

The method that I would employ would be to blend the WMO with gasoline at about 20%, leave it to settle for about 1 month, pour off the thin WMO from the sediments, then pour it into a bucket of activated charcoal and leave there for some period of time, yet to be determined, then screen out the activated charcoal, then filter down to 1-micron, and/or use a centrifuge.

I should clarify - I have not used AC with thick oil. The oil fuel I used it on was already thinned down to a diesel-like viscosity. I expect if the fuel is thinned it is easier to 'de-tangle' the particulate contaminants from the longer hydrocarbon chains and get them locked into the pores of the AC for removal from the fuel.
Col

[Hoddamdg11]

Arduino

Excalibur, FYI there is an article in January's Silicon chip magazine on "Arduino - Controlled Fuel Injection for Small Engines" which may be of interest to you.

[dippy909]

Pyrolysis Start

Hi Everybody
I would like to Introduce myself, from New Delhi.
I have read the extensive thread 100+ pages (and also started rereading it), it has been fascinating to be excited about a project like Pyrolysis and gain so much knowledge from the Forum.
I am building a home made Pyrolysis system for waste plastics .
Will post pictures of the equipment shortly.

I will be asking for advice for faults, guidance and reference and would like to share the experience with the forum.

My first question is that I am going to use a Tandoor (Clay Oven ) to fit the Reactor in. Will a clay oven be sufficient for insulation and gain the necessary temperatures required ( up to 500 degrees?)

Regards

[Beyond Biodiesel]

Watch my set up, go to YouTube and then search for franciso Gerardo nungaray. a few stuff are in english the ones in spanish I can help you to translate

Fantastico, gerardo!!

I should clarify - I have not used AC with thick oil. The oil fuel I used it on was already thinned down to a diesel-like viscosity. I expect if the fuel is thinned it is easier to 'de-tangle' the particulate contaminants from the longer hydrocarbon chains and get them locked into the pores of the AC for removal from the fuel.
Col

Yes, i would think activated charcoal would work better at removing dissolved and suspended carbon from WMO if the WMO were thinned first with gasoline. Your results seem reasonable, so I have ordered 5LB (2.3LG) of activated charcoal to try it on some of my WMO.

Hi Everybody
I would like to Introduce myself, from New Delhi.
I have read the extensive thread 100+ pages (and also started rereading it), it has been fascinating to be excited about a project like Pyrolysis and gain so much knowledge from the Forum.
I am building a home made Pyrolysis system for waste plastics .
Will post pictures of the equipment shortly.

I will be asking for advice for faults, guidance and reference and would like to share the experience with the forum.

My first question is that I am going to use a Tandoor (Clay Oven ) to fit the Reactor in. Will a clay oven be sufficient for insulation and gain the necessary temperatures required ( up to 500 degrees?)

Regards

Welcome, dippy909, it is good to know that you have read through the forum. I see no reason why a Tandoor (Clay Oven) would not work; however, you may need to modify the design slightly to accommodate your heating method, and the temperatures that you wish to reach, but clay is an excellent insulator, that can indeed handle cracking temperatures.

[Col]

Using Activated Carbon

The method that I would employ would be to blend the WMO with gasoline at about 20%, leave it to settle for about 1 month, pour off the thin WMO from the sediments, then pour it into a bucket of activated charcoal and leave there for some period of time, yet to be determined, then screen out the activated charcoal, then filter down to 1-micron, and/or use a centrifuge.

Hi BBD
If you use the bucket method don't leave a head of WMO above the AC unless you intend to mix it periodically. As with most interaction processes the AC will trap contaminants with which it comes in contact with. For that to happen the WMO must 'bump into' some AC or there will be no interaction. If you only pour in enough WMO to fill the air spaces within the AC you will get a better result, though may be surprised how little WMO will fit into that air space, how much the AC will rise, and how long it takes to drain it all out. I have 600L of AC in an IBC at work which did a great job of cleaning some filthy water, when I wanted to dry it out to pack it away it took about a month of drip draining! It will go mouldy if not dried out. PS - I found that pumping water through an IBC with 1 inlet and 1 outlet was not a good way to use the AC as the flow of water formed a channel through the AC, bypassing the bulk of the AC. I have since bought some plumbers pipes to link up in series for the next time I need to use the AC.
It may not be noticeable if using with WMO but when using a fresh batch of AC with water the first lot of drained water had a fine coat of floating carbon dust on the surface which had the appearance of oil. Once AC was flushed it didn't happen again.
After soaking in AC I filtered the fuel oil through some laboratory filter paper. I think the paper was only rated to 6 microns. I still had some AC fines come through the paper but they did settle out and leave a nice clean product.
The result will depend on matching the pore size of the AC to the contaminant. If you don't get a good result with the AC you have ordered let me know and I can send you some of mine.
Good luck
Col

[Beyond Biodiesel]

Hi BBD
If you use the bucket method don't leave a head of WMO above the AC unless you intend to mix it periodically. As with most interaction processes the AC will trap contaminants with which it comes in contact with. For that to happen the WMO must 'bump into' some AC or there will be no interaction. If you only pour in enough WMO to fill the air spaces within the AC you will get a better result, though may be surprised how little WMO will fit into that air space, how much the AC will rise, and how long it takes to drain it all out. I have 600L of AC in an IBC at work which did a great job of cleaning some filthy water, when I wanted to dry it out to pack it away it took about a month of drip draining! It will go mouldy if not dried out. PS - I found that pumping water through an IBC with 1 inlet and 1 outlet was not a good way to use the AC as the flow of water formed a channel through the AC, bypassing the bulk of the AC. I have since bought some plumbers pipes to link up in series for the next time I need to use the AC.
It may not be noticeable if using with WMO but when using a fresh batch of AC with water the first lot of drained water had a fine coat of floating carbon dust on the surface which had the appearance of oil. Once AC was flushed it didn't happen again.
After soaking in AC I filtered the fuel oil through some laboratory filter paper. I think the paper was only rated to 6 microns. I still had some AC fines come through the paper but they did settle out and leave a nice clean product.
The result will depend on matching the pore size of the AC to the contaminant. If you don't get a good result with the AC you have ordered let me know and I can send you some of mine.
Good luck
Col

Well, this is off-topic, but thanks for the advice. I was not actually sure how to use it for cleaning WMO. I had considered using an activated charcoal water filter to do it, but I figured that residence time would also be necessary. A circulation pump could move WMO through n activated charcoal water filter continuously until clean.

So, you used 600L activated charcoal in 950L tote, so roughly half the volume. I just bought 5lbs of AC, which was not classified by pour size, but is just baked coconut shells, and sold in volume for use as kitty-litter smell remover. I plan to try various volume relationships. I know it is light, but I do not know what volume that is going to turn out to be. I figure it will be enough to experiment with on a 5-gallon (20L) bucket.

[gerardo]

this is my set up

mmm. I dont know how to put the link from YouTube so that you guys can see my work could somebody help me? if you go to YouTube then search francisco gerardo nungaray I have there also a way of making automotive grease at home.
regards from mexico

[Col]

Off topic apologies

Well, this is off-topic, ...

Sorry, I thought it was useful info for whoever was going to try and use AC. I'll be more particular about info I post in the future.
Col

[Beyond Biodiesel]

mmm. I dont know how to put the link from YouTube so that you guys can see my work could somebody help me? if you go to YouTube then search francisco gerardo nungaray I have there also a way of making automotive grease at home.
regards from mexico

gerardo, select the text you want a link to, then click the icon above the text box that shows an earth with 2 links of chain under it, then a box will pop up and you past your link in, as I did here: francisco gerardo nungaray

Sorry, I thought it was useful info for whoever was going to try and use AC. I'll be more particular about info I post in the future.
Col

It is useful information, and there are people who are getting black fuel from pyrolysis, which they could use your activated charcoal idea to clean up. Or, if they have WMO, then your activated charcoal idea might clean it up without the need of distillation. So, thanks.