How to turn plastic waste into diesel fuel cheaply

[jonathan]

retort problem

thanks everyone....i try pe plastic without catalyst empty reflux...pp plastic and waste oil comes out yellow at reflux tempreture of 220 but when tempreture rise to 310 it comes black but i find the proplem retort was over 400 so maybe boil over...

[rozier56]

detergent/lubrication

Hi FOLKS,
How would one measure the detergent/lubrication value of your diesel product.This seems to be a very important necessity in the finished product!
Any bright ideas?

[wheels]

Hi FOLKS,
How would one measure the detergent/lubrication value of your diesel product.This seems to be a very important necessity in the finished product!
Any bright ideas?

You need to get a full Chemical analysis of the product you have. A Fuels ability to do those things is determined by what fractions of what Hydrocarbons are in the Liquid. It is the heavier fractions, the ones down on the Oil end of the chains that will be lubricants. The lighter fractions up in the Solvent end will thin those heavier fractions down and make them less able to lubricate. So you need to know exactly what of what is in the batch.
This is where "home made" products become an issue, because no one batch is ever going to be the same. We simply will never have the control, equipment and ability to constantly tweak production to ensure correct and stable chemical mix is created each and every time.
So the easiest way to protect your valuable engine is to add an additive that can ensure you have stability, ant-oxidation and lubrication. I highly recommend Amsoil. It's a real deal Fuel stabilizer unlike many additives on the market. I highly recommend it.

[Piet]

Amsoil seems to be a very expensive American synthetic motor cycle oil?

[Excalibur]

Yesterday I made 180 liters of diesel which measured .855SG .Feedstock was very ugly WMO, probably diesel engine oil.
I had trouble with pumps, filters and new equipment so I had to cut the run short. The new bigger gasjar worked well. The fuel gives me about 3 - 4 weeks supply.

excalibur did u test your diesel in car? and l read that fuel oxidize after days and turn black....does your diesel turn black also? thanks

Yes. It goes very well, at least as good as bought diesel. I tweak the specific gravity to suit the seasons which I believe helps. None of my fuel turns black after sitting even my runs using plastic feedstock haven't. I can only recall reports of plastic causing the symptom and none with WMO.

[jonathan]

retort problem

thanks excalibur...yesterday l was thinking about insulation and i become with the idea of using exhaust insulation.. what about this insulation someone test it?

[wheels]

Amsoil seems to be a very expensive American synthetic motor cycle oil?

They make a range of products and Diesel Fuel stabilizer is one of them. I have no idea if it would be available in your part of the world though. Another name to try is Mooreys Products.

[black]

Hi guys it’s been 5-6 days reading but I finally worked through it all and what a lot I learned! There is so much experience and help that I have decided to start a wmo test plant.
Excalibur when you say you tweak your fuel do you use pump diesel or petrol to get the viscosity were you want it or am I misunderstanding?
How long did the 180L run take and have you got pictures of how you keep filling the retort vessel?

Great forum keep it up all!

[black]

Forget the pics about the retort filling I got to your blog.

Thanks

[wheels]

thanks excalibur...yesterday l was thinking about insulation and i become with the idea of using exhaust insulation.. what about this insulation someone test it?

Exhaust insulation is ideal. But you need a lot of it. The thicker the insulation, the more economical the plant becomes. You need to try to obtain a thickness of about 100mm. Any Fiberglass insulation will work and a layer of Shiny Aluminium Foil aids in reflecting Infra Red heat back in towards the Vessel as well as protecting the Fiberglass insulation.

Black, you must be a fast reader. It took me almost two weeks ;-)

[Excalibur]

Hi guys it’s been 5-6 days reading but I finally worked through it all and what a lot I learned! There is so much experience and help that I have decided to start a wmo test plant.
Excalibur when you say you tweak your fuel do you use pump diesel or petrol to get the viscosity were you want it or am I misunderstanding?

Wow! 5 -6days, that's a marathon read. Actually, I read through twice. So much more made sense the second time around. Time will tell how much you have picked up. I think it's well recognized that the subject is not super easy as it might appear and that proper effort needs to be put in to get a good understanding.

The fuel specific gravity is tweaked by using petrol or clean waste hydraulic oil, depending on whether I need to add lighter or heavier. The reason that adding diesel doesn't worked out well is that to reach the target SG, 100% diesel would need to added! To put it another way, heavier or lighter fuel needs to be added to move the SG significantly or practically.

More notes of the last run.
Diesel fuel used in the firing: 9 liters. The rest of the heat source was retort generated gases.

thanks excalibur...yesterday l was thinking about insulation and i become with the idea of using exhaust insulation.. what about this insulation someone test it?

I picked up some used exhaust wrap insulation from a junk yard and have/are using it on various parts of the Orion plant. Currently it wraps the burner exhaust pipe leading away from the retort. Ideally the exhaust needs to be up to minimum temperature in order to have good draw.
Looking at wrap specifications, I notice there was quite a difference in temperature ratings. Also there was reports of cheap grades becoming brittle with use. The cheapest source I found was via Ebay from China. I did not think it was very cost effective.
Jonathan, if you want cheap insulation, how about using pumice?

[jonathan]

retort insulation

thanks all as i say in older posts in malta is difficult to find insulation..even prumice and exhaust insulation is not that cheap but i will order from ebay...in my experiment i try soffits fire proof and it works well also..

[Beyond Biodiesel]

Hi FOLKS,
How would one measure the detergent/lubrication value of your diesel product.This seems to be a very important necessity in the finished product!
Any bright ideas?

When it comes to petroleum distillates, the petroleum industry has used specific gravity to determine lubricity for well over a century, because the lubricity of a petroleum distillate is a function of its specific gravity. Therefore one only need to measure the specific gravity of your resulting distillate and maintain an end product that is roughly .850 to reasonably approximate diesel fuel from various cracked hydrocarbons sources.

[wheels]

When it comes to petroleum distillates, the petroleum industry has used specific gravity to determine lubricity for well over a century, because the lubricity of a petroleum distillate is a function of its specific gravity. Therefore one only need to measure the specific gravity of your resulting distillate and maintain an end product that is roughly .850 to reasonably approximate diesel fuel from various cracked hydrocarbons sources.

Actually that's not quite the full story. The specific weight is not what give a fluid it's lubricity or "anti-wear". In fact Lucus, the leading manufacturer of Diesel Injector Pumps makes this statement,
The lubrication of the Fuel is not directly provided by the Viscosity of the Fuel, but by other components in the Fuel which prevent wear on contacting metal surfaces".
When Sulphur was removed from Diesel, the process also removed the properties that created the Fuels lubrication and additives had to be introduced to the fuel to improve it's anti-wear. Another issue in Cold climate countries is the No1 and No2 Diesel Fuels where the Winter Fuel has a high content of Kerosene. Kero is a poor lubricator and in fact can actually be used to break down the anti-wear properties of lubricating oils. Often Zinc is used as a lubricant, but not as solid Zinc of course. So that is not really something available and easy to do for us amatures. However Biofuel has been seen as an excellent anti-wear fuel and for Sulphur Free Fuels, the addition of just 1 to 2% of Biofuel can make a substantial improvement to anti-wear. Soybean has been tested as having the best anti-wear properties of all Bio-fuels, being high in concentration of Methyl Easter.

[Beyond Biodiesel]

While it is true that other substances, such as: Sulfur, graphite, molybdenum, have been added to fuels and/or lubricants for increasing lubricity; nonetheless lubricity is generally a function of specific gravity, thus the reason why the petroleum industry has used the API gravity standard, which is based upon specific gravity.

Thus I have been blending waste oils with solvents to make diesel fuels for 7 years. The central principle behind blending depends upon the concept that specific gravity is closely related to viscosity and lubricity; which result in combustion efficiency. We blenders essentially blend solvents with waste oils to produce an end product that approximates the specific gravity of D2 diesel fuel.

Below are some useful links for the specific gravity and viscosity of common solvents and oils

Specific Gravity And Viscosity Of Liquids

Viscosity & Specific Gravity - Force Engineered Products

Specific Gravity - Liquids

Peanut oil 0.92sg
Automotive crankcase oils SAE-5W/10W/20W/30W/40W/50W 0.88-0.94sg
Diesel Fuel Oil 2D/3D/4D/5D 0.81 - 0.96sg
Kerosene 0.78-0.82sg
Jet fuel 0.82sg
Acetone CH3COCH3 0.792sg
Gasoline a 0.74sg

There are; however, other factors, such as flash point, cetane/octane ratings that effect combustion; therefore, we blenders find that, while gasoline blended at 50% with common waste oils, such as WMO or WVO, results in a fuel blend with a specific gravity of about .85sg, we nonetheless find that gasoline at about 20-30% in a waste oil blend results in proper combustion with little coke remainder. We also find little to no engine and IP wear in such a blend, because its specific gravity is actually higher than that of diesel fuel.