How to turn plastic waste into diesel fuel cheaply

[Beyond Biodiesel]

OK, kedigen, with further clarification, yes, electrical heating with immersion heaters, like electric water heater elements, is a good idea, except you will need electrical feed throws capable of withstanding 425c. They exist, but they are expensive.

Otherwise you will end up with the kind of fire your photos showed. Thanks for the photos. It should serve as a reminder to everyone here that is precisely what can happen if you are not careful enough.

[Excalibur]

12mm is plenty thick enough. Reactor wall thickness is a "trade-off". A heavy thickness will take longer to heat but be immensely strong so extra safe. For comparison, my gas/diesel fired reactor is 8mm wall with 10mm floor.
There is a saying within the engineering industry in which I work: "Nothing ever broke because it was too strong!".

The ratiomatic heating was commonly used here 1960s-80's in central heating systems. Popularity declined because of diesel cost increase.
This type should be perfect for your requirements. They are efficient with built-in safety features. They should be adaptable to thermocouple PID thermostat control.

I suggest make a miniature model of your proposed design to test theories and assumptions. A 1/8 or 1/6 scale model of say 1.6mm steel would be easily modified, quickly heated on LPG, etc. Just a thought...

[Excalibur]

3mm seemed like a common thickness recommendation from those using electricity heating only. So I reasoned that I would use 5 or 6mm with flame heating. I wasn't able to find a suitable vessel, Then a length of 200mm x 8mm pipe turned up so I made the reactor from that. Honestly, I've not used a reactor with greater wall thickness than 8mm so I don't know how they would perform. I worry that excess heat would be wasted in initial heating because of the thickness and weight. There may be advantages with having a larger steel mass like heat control might become very stable with smooth temperature swings.
Whatever you choose, please view the machine as an experimental prototype so be ready to make changes to improve the design. I'm on my 6th major revision and already it has had multiple upgrades.
Good luck.

[waterboost]

the aluminum oxide insulation to be made with bricks.

Ermmm??? I use aluminium oxide for conducting heat? zinc oxide is an insulator?

Rockwool is all you need

[waterboost]

jonathan, sorry you're having problems. Good insulation can make a big difference to efficiency. We need good economics for heat especially where energy is expensive. I started thinking about how much heat was required to distill hydrocarbons. I searched out a report from mid 90's.

Conventional atmospheric and vacuum crude distillation units require about 100,000 BTUs (British Thermal Units)of furnace energy per barrel processed. Since a barrel of oil contains about 6,200,000 BTU's, the required furnace energy amounts to about 1.6 percent of the processed oil.

One oil barrel= 42 US gallons, which is about 159 liters or 35 imperial gallons.

So therefore, 100,000 BTU or 29.3Kw per barrel.

Naturally, the figures are from some very efficient refinery plants where oil companies have been developing their processes over decades. Just how close to that 1.6% us DIY can get will be interesting.

those figures are for the energy required to distill.... cracking is a little bit more energy hungry especially when using carrier bags as feedstock without a conductive medium in the reactor

[ladanivaca]

¿Qué os parece esta noticia fresca?

Hola amigos os enseño este enlace.
Saludos.


https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/ne...astic-to-fuel: Bcake:

[Excalibur]

Ermmm??? I use aluminium oxide for conducting heat? zinc oxide is an insulator?
Rockwool is all you need

Jetijs used aluminum oxide bricks to make his pyrolysis reactor. See first page/s of this thread. Refractory wiki lists aluminum oxide, silica, magnesium, lime and fireclays as common firebrick ingredients. Actually, I use what I believe is Rockwool on my reflux. I like it better than Kaowool. So, yes you are correct, it is very possible to use Rockwool as insulation with success.

those figures are for the energy required to distill.... cracking is a little bit more energy hungry especially when using carrier bags as feedstock without a conductive medium in the reactor

The more cracking required, the more energy needed. So comparably cracking plastic would use more energy than cracking shorter chain hydrocarbons. One fascinating part of the puzzle emerged recently reading the Shell Petroleum Handbook was the 'diesel distillation range'. Apart from a few light diesel fuels it is not possible to determine the full distillation range of most fuels as cracking commences at about 350°C.

Hola amigos os enseño este enlace.
Saludos.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/ne...astic-to-fuel: Bcake:

Thanks for posting. It's great to see people doing constructive things to help themselves.

[miku]

nice and simple

[QUOTE=Jetijs;123461]The info is already shared, if you don't understand something or have any questions I will answer them, just ask I am aware that if you see this tech for the first time it might be confusing, but that is why I am here, to answer questions thanks for the info i will try

[piccolo chimico]

salve a tutti sono nuovo di questo forum,per iniziare complimenti per il bel forum che siete ed è molto interessante, peccato avervi conosciuto dopo aver costruito il mio storta.avrei alcune domande da farvi.ho costruito il reattore con un bruciatore a gas doppia camera isolata con lana di roccia alta temperatura, colonna di frazionamento a 2 piatti, catalizzatore pomice,condensatore a piastre ad acqua, pompa vuoto e gorgogliatore. tempo di impiego temperatura da 20/420 in 25 minuti precisi, a fine processo ottengo il 100/100 di prodotto da plastica sia di olio ma esce troppo scuro poco infiammabile almeno che non si riscaldi,mi date un aiuto per favore

[Excalibur]

Welcome piccolo chimico. I rendered your post into English to increase the chance of help from forum members. Please post some clear photos of your plant and the fuel produced. Thanks

Hello everyone I'm new to this forum, to start congratulations for the forum you are nice and it is very interesting, having known sin after building my retort. I have some questions for you. I built the reactor with a gas burner double insulated with rock wool high temperature fractionation column 2 plates, pumice catalyst, plate condenser water, vacuum pump and bubbler. time use temperature from 20/420 in 25 minutes precisely, at the end of the process I get the 100/100 product is plastic from oil comes out too dark but not flammable unless it is warm, you give me a help please

[piccolo chimico]

ciao excalibur,vi allego il mio storta pero' la foto non è completa non si vede la pompa vuoto con gorgogliatore e centralina.grazie

[Excalibur]

Thanks for the picture.
Where is your reflux?
Please make a schematic drawing of the fractionation column. Also weigh EXACTLY 500ml or 1000ml of the product and post the weight in grams.
Does the fuel turn to wax if cooled in a refrigerator?
How much vacuum are you using on the retort?
More pics??

excalibur hello, I am attaching my retort, however, 'the picture is not complete can not be seen with the vacuum pump and bubbler unit. thanks

[Beyond Biodiesel]

Welcome, piccolo chimico, nice flanged pyrolysis unit. The translation of your original post did not help me understand your system enough. I am not sure how wrapping insulation around your retort, when you are heating it with a flame will help either get heat into the retort, or insulate the retort. I suppose a flame-heated retort would need to allow the hot gasses from the flame to be directed around the retort to an exit. So, insulation would be outside the path of the hot gasses from the flame.

español:

Bienvenido, chimico piccolo, bonita unidad de pirólisis con bridas. La traducción de su post original no ayudó a entender lo suficiente el sistema. No estoy seguro de cómo envolver el aislamiento alrededor de su réplica, cuando usted va a calentar con una llama ayudará a obtener ya sea de calor en la retorta, o aislar la retorta. Supongo que una réplica de la llama calentado tendría que permitir que los gases calientes de la llama para dirigir la vuelta de la réplica a una salida. Por lo tanto, el aislamiento sería fuera de la trayectoria de los gases calientes de la llama.

[piccolo chimico]

giusta osservazione excalibur, è quello che ho pensato.come vedrai dalle foto sto modificando la storta per mettere la colonna di frazionamento in testa ad essa per creare il reflusso e poi coibentarla.per quanto riguarda il vuoto lo tengo sempre acceso per evitare otturazioni,cera non ne trovo da nessuna parte,il peso del combustibile è di 1500 grammi per 2litri .la coibentazione assomiglia ad excalibur ma con lana invece di vermiculite

[piccolo chimico]

foto

provo a caricare le foto