How to turn plastic waste into diesel fuel cheaply

[chacowako]

Guys im confused I heated my oil using an induction cooker too 100c and lost 3/4 of my oil?
My remaing oil wont light at all i heated the oil and placed a lighter it wont light is induction heating destroying the flash point? Or are diesel so hard to light?

I also tried placing newspaper to suck the oil did not work?

[rozier56]

Excalibur

Pete,can You Check Out Your Email As I Have Some Info Re Skype!

[wheels]

Guys im confused I heated my oil using an induction cooker too 100c and lost 3/4 of my oil?
My remaing oil wont light at all i heated the oil and placed a lighter it wont light is induction heating destroying the flash point? Or are diesel so hard to light?

I also tried placing newspaper to suck the oil did not work?

What kind of oil? are we talking Wast Motor Oil? 100DegC will do nothing to pyrolyze the Oil. You need Temperatures in excess of 360DegC. The loss you have seen is most likely water, which is very common in WMO and tends to vent off at 100DegC, which is boiling point of water of course. So you tend to see two vapor points. One at around that 100DegC being the water, and the next comes at the 260 to 360DegC which is the Oil.
If you are using induction heating, be very careful. I would thus assume you maybe doing this inside your Home of the Induction cooker top. Firstly, this process can be extremely dangerous if something goes wrong. DO NOT do this inside. Secondly and as has already happened to someone else on this Board, using the Induction cooker at such very high temperatures, can cause damage to the Cooker surface.

[chacowako]

What kind of oil? are we talking Wast Motor Oil? 100DegC will do nothing to pyrolyze the Oil. You need Temperatures in excess of 360DegC. The loss you have seen is most likely water, which is very common in WMO and tends to vent off at 100DegC, which is boiling point of water of course. So you tend to see two vapor points. One at around that 100DegC being the water, and the next comes at the 260 to 360DegC which is the Oil.
If you are using induction heating, be very careful. I would thus assume you maybe doing this inside your Home of the Induction cooker top. Firstly, this process can be extremely dangerous if something goes wrong. DO NOT do this inside. Secondly and as has already happened to someone else on this Board, using the Induction cooker at such very high temperatures, can cause damage to the Cooker surface.

No the oil you see in my picture. the cracked oil from the PP plastic.
Also I was using the induction in the middle of the garden with a very long extension cord. i'm not crazy to do this in the house the smell itself is horrible and toxic.
What I do not understand is that after heating/distilling the oil to 80-100c almost all my gasoline fraction evaporated and whats left do not light at all like water maybe my mixture is gasoline and water? but the oil as you see in the picture did not separate with water I left it in the container for 3 days and did not separate maybe gasoline and water blends but diesel and water separate.
Anyway these are just my thoughts and was wondering has anyone experienced this. Although I would completely redo my retort because my aim is diesel not gasoline.

[wheels]

No the oil you see in my picture. the cracked oil from the PP plastic.
Also I was using the induction in the middle of the garden with a very long extension cord. i'm not crazy to do this in the house the smell itself is horrible and toxic.
What I do not understand is that after heating/distilling the oil to 80-100c almost all my gasoline fraction evaporated and whats left do not light at all like water maybe my mixture is gasoline and water? but the oil as you see in the picture did not separate with water I left it in the container for 3 days and did not separate maybe gasoline and water blends but diesel and water separate.
Anyway these are just my thoughts and was wondering has anyone experienced this. Although I would completely redo my retort because my aim is diesel not gasoline.

Hmmm, sorry if i am miss understanding. So I assume that you have already pyrolyzed the PP and the 80 to 100degC is the distillation temperature. As you heat the liquid toward the 100Deg, the very light factions, if there are any, will come of first. Benzene boils at 86degC, but I doubt you would have any Benzene from PP. Most of the light fractions have much higher boiling points. In fact the fractions that make up what we call "Petrol" ranges to temperatures as high as 260DegC. So 100deg is not actually high enough.
So the best way to go about this. The first Distillation vessel needs to be heated to about 360DegC. The second Distillation vessel needs to be 260Deg. The liquids that sit in the first vessel will now range from the heaviest fractions up to the fractions that remain liquid at 360Deg. This will be your "Diesel". Lighter fractions will continue to the 260Deg pot and will condense out to give you a range of Hydrocarbons from the 360 to 260Deg boiling points. This range is what we would call "petrol". You can capture all of those fractions if you wish, or you can add a third distillation pot heated to the 80 to 100deg and that will then boil off the very light fractions. But most likely, there will not be any from PP. However, if you have any water present, it is possible that you will produce some Hydrochloric Acid. This has a boiling point of 85Deg, so having the last pot heated to 100Deg, will help to boil away any HCL.
I am really not sure what you have in the Jar of it mixes with Water. If it can mix with water, it is not a Fuel. It would have to be water and it could be acidic.

[chacowako]

The only thing I can confirm is that its fuel because it burns like crazy and burned some of my hair in my hand LOL.
When i distilled it to check what fractions I had it no longer burned.. Im going to add more condensers as you said.

[wheels]

The only thing I can confirm is that its fuel because it burns like crazy and burned some of my hair in my hand LOL.
When i distilled it to check what fractions I had it no longer burned.. Im going to add more condensers as you said.

Very heavy fractions, like Diesel and Oil become much harder to ignite, buit should still burn if you apply enough heat.
All Hydrocarbons float on water. You can not mix them and water. That would be why they burned. If after that, you distilled the liquid and was then left with something that did not Burn and it mixes with water, then that has to be water.
So you have a very light weight fraction that boils off at temperatures bellow 100 Deg, That is not very high for hydrocarbons, although there are one or two that will boil bellow 100. For example, Benzene boils at 86DegC, although I am not sure how you would get Benzene from PP. But there must be a similar weight Fraction present. If you take the output of that pot and chill it to re capture those fractions, you will have those really light weight fractions again.
I am also trying to work out where all the water is coming from. Make sure the Plastic is dry before you put it in the Retort.
So! This would tend to point to a couple of possibilities.
First off, are you absolutely sure you are using PP Plastics??
What is the temperature that you are Pyrolyzing the PP at?
Are you using a Catalyst? and where and what temperature?
Do you have a Reflux vessel? and What temperature does it operate at?

[rozier56]

metal request

Is there anybody out there an idea of what metals are suitable to use in the fire chamber compartment when firing with a oilburner?
The temperature that we are dealing with seems to be in the 400-450*c range.

[wheels]

Is there anybody out there an idea of what metals are suitable to use in the fire chamber compartment when firing with a oilburner?
The temperature that we are dealing with seems to be in the 400-450*c range.

If you go back a few pages, you will come across a post where I discussed Metals, specifically Stainless Steel types suitable for the purpose.
The thing is, it comes down to cost vs practicality. The metals that will give greater durability are more expensive to buy and more expensive and difficult to work with. So often Mild Steel can be just as suitable, because it is cheap and easy to work with and you simply replace it when it is ready to be replaced. What I did with mine is to fit replaceable shields where Flame is focused onto the Steel and that takes the brunt of the oxidation and can be changed out when it has become worn.
Another Metal that is cheap, is Cast Iron. However, obviously you would have to have it cast for you and thus it is not something easy to work with. But it does make good heat shields and if you can find scrap pieces of Cast Iron, it is well worth using.

[kedigen]

hi
oil-fired heating did smoke a lot. I think my system resistance heating. 4.5 m3 reactor. 45 kW of electricity would be enough? reactor of 330 cm height. 127 cm diameter.

[wheels]

hi
oil-fired heating did smoke a lot. I think my system resistance heating. 4.5 m3 reactor. 45 kW of electricity would be enough? reactor of 330 cm height. 127 cm diameter.

Wow!! Are you trying to melt plastic? or make a Nuclear Fusion reactor? That is a lot of Power for a small vessel and the Power Bill must be horrific surely.

If the Oil fired was producing too much smoke, it is possible you don't have it burning correctly. It should be able to burn hot and clean if tuned just right.

[Excalibur]

I would look closely at the air/fuel ratio for the burner. It sounds like it isn't getting enough air to burn clean. Also with correct air/fuel it will be most efficient so will give best fuel economy. The burners I'm familiar with have a simple means of restricting the amount of air the fan can draw. While the amount of air is manually adjustable, the fuel volume is only increased/decreased with bigger/smaller nozzles. It might be worth looking at the spec for the fuel the burner uses. I think at least some use a diesel fuel similar to 'number 1', so in the region of .810SG.
HTH, else post a pic.

[kedigen]

Does 45 kW resistance heater?

[chacowako]

I need advice from the experts on condensers how do you calculate the temperature drop from distance of the length of pipe to each condenser.

example
condenser 1 350c
condenser 2 250c distance from condenser 1 4 feet
condenser 3 150c distance from from condenser 2 3 feet
Or there are just too many variables to make it that simple.
But I plan to use heater bands from 250c and 150c as 350 can use just simple insulation

[wheels]

I need advice from the experts on condensers how do you calculate the temperature drop from distance of the length of pipe to each condenser.

example
condenser 1 350c
condenser 2 250c distance from condenser 1 4 feet
condenser 3 150c distance from from condenser 2 3 feet
Or there are just too many variables to make it that simple.
But I plan to use heater bands from 250c and 150c as 350 can use just simple insulation

Yes it is far too difficult to do it that way. The temperature will vary dramatically with flow.
With my Plant, i use the Heat exhaust to heat the Reflux and Catalyst chamber, but the temperature does vary dramatically.
To give the best control, you need a heater on each Condenser and a temperature controller on each to ensure a steady stable temperature is achieved.