How to turn plastic waste into diesel fuel cheaply

[wheels]

Greetings guys, i'm improwing my retort insulation, and wanted to get your opinion on this. I want to put the reactor inside a barrel and fill the gap with insluation (much like Excalibur),pearlite is no option, but i have unlimited acces to clay, sand, ash, and glass. I was wondering if it is better to fill it up with just glass or just ash, or clay, or a mix between, all or some of them.
Thanks!

Follow the advise we gave jonathan if you want to make some form of a solid cement insulation.
But I don't understand what you mean by filling the gap between retort and barrel. If you mean the gap between outer barrel and retort, that is the gap you need to allow heat to get up around the retort. You will want to have heat all around the retort, not just at the bottom. Plastic is a very good insulator and heat does not transfer through it very well, so heat all around is essential to ensure the melting takes place as fast as is possible.

[jonathan]

retort

great work kedigen..keep it up and thanks for everyone you upload photos and help other....thanks beyond biodiesel and excalibur and wheels i find many help from them..thanks

[fox32]

Greetings guys, i'm improwing my retort insulation, and wanted to get your opinion on this. I want to put the reactor inside a barrel and fill the gap with insluation (much like Excalibur),pearlite is no option, but i have unlimited acces to clay, sand, ash, and glass. I was wondering if it is better to fill it up with just glass or just ash, or clay, or a mix between, all or some of them.
Thanks!

[wheels]

Thanks, Wheels, for the writeup on stainless steel. I found it very useful.

You are welcome.
I find it amusing when People talk about Grades of Stainless Steel in terms of Quality. For example, some think that 316 is a better grade to 304 because the Number is Higher. Or because 316 is better in Salt water, it must be a better quality. One very incorrect assumption that I come across often, is if a Stainless Steel is magnetic, it is therefore a low grade and cheaply made, which is not the case at all. Every Grade of Stainless steel is made for a specific range of use. Each has advantages and Disadvantages. There is no one grade better than all others, it comes down which grade is best for purpose.
There are about 150 different grades of Stainless Steel.
In fact the same can be said for any Metal and most especially any form of Alloyed Metal.

[Beyond Biodiesel]

Thanks, Wheels, for the writeup on stainless steel. I found it very useful.

[Beyond Biodiesel]

Thanks, Wheels, for the writeup on stainless steel. I found it very useful.

[Beyond Biodiesel]

Beyond Biodiesel
before 2kg, 6 kg and 30 kg prototoip did. There are some pictures of the forum. I'm building this reactor for commercial purposes. (Http://www.eco-promservice.ru/oborudovanie/fotovideo) looking at this site, I'm doing my own system. There are diagrams and pictures. Please look at them and tell me what you think. I do, there is a failure in the system, tell me. What are missing. The top of the oven, 1 and 2 will be like in the pictures.
Thanks

Very impressive work, kedigen. Thanks for reporting it to us here. What are you planning on using for a seal?

Your schematic suggests that the top of your reactor and the catalyst unit are not going to be insulated. If not, then I would expect that you will lose too much heat for cracking to take place, and/or your fluid stream will just reflux indefinitely.

Your first device after the catalyst device is a heat exchanger. This could pose a serious plug problem with either coke or, if you are planning on cracking plastics, then uncracked plastics could plug it up.

It would be better to have a vessel with the condenser above it, so that you have a secondary refluxing zone above the vessel, where condensates will collect, then drain back into the vessel.

[wheels]

Thanks for the reply wheels
First, even if cracks steam will come out. oxygen can not enter there. The durable steel 304 for this job. I tested with aluminum cookware, the top cover of the steam output gap. but it was not a problem. I tested the device later, when you open the plastic feeding the flames took place. the reactor, and the product. After a few months already, make a second reactor in the oven, I'm thinking of using exchange. for will be go out, be able to control. if it is older, we can change.

I have to say, that is quite an effort of engineering. Well done.

Keep this info for reference for when the Vessel needs to be replaced in the Future. I have worked with many Stainless Steel materials over the years, in all sorts of applications.
304L and 316L have very similar chemistrys, except 316L withstands Chlorides better than 304L. But neither perform very well with high temperatures. They both significantly lose strength when heated and can easily distort and 316L suffers from embrittlement at high temperature's and will crack. Neither of them should be used in heat above 800DegC.
There is a 304H that has a higher carbon content that 304L and will perform slightly better. The L stands for Low carbon SST. In the 300 series, 309 and 310 both withstand high heat of around 1000degC, but will suffer from scale eventually and 310 can become brittle and crack after time.
Never use Martensitic and Precipitation hardened SST. They are Temperature hardened and will soften dramatically at temperatures over their hardening temperature. The same applies to Duplex SST's. These metals suffer from embrittlement at temperatures over 350DegC and will crack.

The best choice of SST is the Ferritic 446 which has a 24% Chromium content and can work happily in temperatures of 1100DegC with no scaling issues.
Another very good choice of SST is 2111HTC. That will also perform very well in very high heat conditions. It has a high nickel content and thus can be expensive.

Be aware that what makes Stainless steel "stainless" is oxygen reacting with the Chromium. In high heats and especially in a furnace, there is very little Oxygen, so the ability to self protect is greatly reduced.
Because of that, plain old Mild Steel will work almost as well a many of the SST metals and being significantly cheaper, it is sometimes easier or cheaper to make a vessel from Mild steel with the view that it is replaced when needed.

[Excalibur]

Kedigen, nice work.

Looking at the schematic drawing and relative sizes of the parts, I wondered if there is going to be enough reflux capability?

Is there provision to divert the excess gas feed in times when the reactor is already at optimum temperature? Perhaps storing the gas to one side for later use?

The second condenser inlet is near the bottom. I suppose you want the vapor to bubble through the condenser contents. Please be aware that the higher the level of condensed liquid, the more back pressure on the reactor.

[wheels]

Beyond Biodiesel
before 2kg, 6 kg and 30 kg prototoip did. There are some pictures of the forum. I'm building this reactor for commercial purposes. (Http://www.eco-promservice.ru/oborudovanie/fotovideo) looking at this site, I'm doing my own system. There are diagrams and pictures. Please look at them and tell me what you think. I do, there is a failure in the system, tell me. What are missing. The top of the oven, 1 and 2 will be like in the pictures.
Thanks

My only concern is that I think you are making the wrong choice of material for the Reactor Vessel. 304 is not the best for High Heat and especially in the presence of many Chemicals and Acids, most especially any Chlorides. This has been the issue with many Tyre reducing plants around the world, where Welds have cracked and oxygen has entered the vessel and huge explosions have resulted, with Deaths and major destruction.

[Excalibur]

kedigen
Please keep the forum updated with photographs of progress. With 10 days to completion you must have a sizeable team working on construction. Thanks.

[Beyond Biodiesel]

Well, kedigen, that is a very impressive piece of equipment. I hope you built, and successfully operated, some smaller reactors first. Say start with 1L, then go to 20L, then 100L, etc.

You do mention putting fire brick "into the kiln" I hope you mean that is outside of the retort, not inside. And, since you are using an oil burner to fire this beast, then I would expect that you will have a cavity surrounding your retort where the hot gasses of combustion warp around the retort, and exit at the top, with steel surrounding the cavity, with fire brick outside of that.

[jonathan]

retort insulation

thanks wheels...it is not proplem to try it like that asswell..i will try it with glass and without glass...thanks all my friends...

[wheels]

thanks a lot beyond biodiesel i will try it like that

How about do a little test batch first. One with some crushed glass (providing it is easy to get of course) and one with out. The thing is, all Cements are weak on their own. The strength come from the materials mixed in to Cement. The Cement is just a Binder that holds all the particles together. The crushed glass is virtually a pure Silica Sand and will give the mix a lot more Supporting strength and may even aid in stopping any possible cracking.
The idea of the Ash is that it is a good insulator and will help reduce the transmission of heat. But it is also very weak and will not aid in giving the concrete any strength. Hence a reason why I suggested some solid Coke in the Ash, just to give a bit of solid material to help bind it all. The Coke will still be rather weak, but better than just Ash on it's own.
Just an idea, I have never tried anything like this, so it may or maynot work. You could make the main structure using the mix described in the other posts and then make a mix of just Cement and Ash, mixing them into a paste like mix and then applying that as a Plaster to the inside of the Cement. That would possibly act as a good protective insulator to the main Cement structure.

[jonathan]

retort insulation

thanks a lot beyond biodiesel i will try it like that