How to turn plastic waste into diesel fuel cheaply

[jonathan]

retort sealant

l am going to try retort copper gasket if someone can help me how much l will make gasket thickness? l am worry if l make it 4mm or more id doesnt seal good maybe 2mm is better thanks

[Excalibur]

l am going to try retort copper gasket if someone can help me how much l will make gasket thickness? l am worry if l make it 4mm or more id doesnt seal good maybe 2mm is better thanks

For comparison, a typical motorcycle engine from the day when copper head gaskets were the norm, 1mm - 1.5mm thickness was common.
Last year I made a replacement motorcycle head gasket from a scrap copper water tank. It was easy to cut and shape so am hoping it works well for our needs on a pyrolysis unit.

[imakebiodiesel]

Providing it can fill any irregularities in the flange , the thinner a gasket is the better. It is important to anneal (soften) the copper before fitting. Once you have it cut to shape heat it to a red heat and allow to cool . Tighten the bolts down gradually down to a uniform torque. A well made copper gasket should withstand very high pressure at very high temperatures for a long time.

[sunilkm153]

still no commercial plan

I am in contact with Asad by email but unfortunately his login to this forum has been blocked for some time. His good sense and wide knowlege is much missed.
I have produced some white spirit from plastic pyrolysis. As you may already know I take all of my fuel in one mixture and separate it later. I heat the mixture up to 90C and hold it there until the output from the still almost stops. This very light fraction is light naphtha. ( can be sold as cigarette lighter fuel).
I then increase the still temperature to 215C and hold it there until the output almost stops. This fraction is White Spirit. It contains mostly C7 to C12 alkanes.
As Asad mentioned there are almost no restrictions on producing, marketing and transporting White Spirits in most countries and it sells for considerably more than motor or heating fuel.

Thank you dear friend for responding promptly since last several days I regularly go through pages of this blog currently I am on page no 55
and today I discovered that you along with your son (who got prize for the same , accept my greetings it may be late but better to be late then never) engaged from long time in this project still why you don't go for large scale or commercial production are you not satisfied still with your pilot plant or simply you are not interested in commercial production

[jonathan]

retort sealant

thanks for help my friends

[imakebiodiesel]

Thank you, I will pass your greeting on to my son.
Most of our research over the last 2 years has been on developing the catalyst and in this we have been successful. My focus is now on the equipment. I believe that the batch processor is not the way to go. Waste plastic is very bulky and requires a very large retort. A large retort is very slow and expensive to heat. So I am developing a continuous processor. The shredded plastic will be melted and extruded into the retort while kerosene, naphtha, gas and, residual wax will be continuously drawn off.

I see the eventual market for this technology, at least in Europe, as small to medium sized. Factories, farms, supermarkets and other businesses have waste plastic that they must pay to have recycled. They can install a pyrolyser and perhaps once a week process their own waste into kerosene that they can use for heating their homes and workspaces.
This way we can bypass Big Oil, rather than go into competition with them.

[Beyond Biodiesel]

I see the eventual market for this technology, at least in Europe, as small to medium sized. Factories, farms, supermarkets and other businesses have waste plastic that they must pay to have recycled. They can install a pyrolyser and perhaps once a week process their own waste into kerosene that they can use for heating their homes and workspaces.
This way we can bypass Big Oil, rather than go into competition with them.

That is my focus. I am not interested in building a large commercial operation, but promoting small scale, grass-roots, off-grid applications.

[lowriderzzz]

My typical output is 92% kerosene and 8% light naphtha. At present I collect all of it in one condenser and then put it into a simple still with a short reflux column. I raise the temperature up to 85C and hold it there for about 15-20 minutes. This distills all of the light naphtha and leaves a kerosene fuel with a flash point of 40C, SG .775 and viscosity of 23mm/s. this is a close match for commercial kerosene.
In a processor I am planning I will incorporate a naphtha condenser that will do this job straight from the retort.

Can you give some more details about the this simple still (design and catalyst mixture inside). Do you share your proportion and type of catalyst that you use.

thanks

[imakebiodiesel]

I use a simple reflux still that I made years ago for methanol recovery in my biodiesel business. It is made from a steel oildrum and has an electric element controlled by a PID controller. The reflux column id 1" copper pipe and the water cooled condenser is also made from copper pipe. The diagram shows it set up for methanol. To extract naphtha from my crude I simply adjust the temperature to 85C.


IMB Biodiesel Processors

[lowriderzzz]

I use a simple reflux still that I made years ago for methanol recovery in my biodiesel business. It is made from a steel oildrum and has an electric element controlled by a PID controller. The reflux column id 1" copper pipe and the water cooled condenser is also made from copper pipe. The diagram shows it set up for methanol. To extract naphtha from my crude I simply adjust the temperature to 85C.

So you re heat the produced liquid again to 85C and vaporize it and then liquidize once again ?

Do you only do this for kerosine ? If I aim for making diesel should this process be necessary ? Thanks

[sunilkm153]

Negative Pressure Device

There is no doubt that the end of a run is the riskiest time and special precautions need to be taken until the whole system cools down.
A good flashback arrestor is the jet used in an ordinary gas burner ring. This tiny opening will prevent air and flame moving backwards right down to near zero pressure. But that does not mean I am going to do without both a bubbler and a stainless steel wool arrestor.

After going through page no 72 to 75 I observed there is great need for good negative pressure device also I read plenty of very good discussion from our fellow members but still it is difficult to understand the true concept behind the whole exercise , can any one and specially IMBD OR PLASTICTRIX TO EXPLAIN THE BUBBLER AND STEEL WOOL ARRESTOR ALONG WITH THEIR CONSTRUCTION
thanks

[Excalibur]

So you re heat the produced liquid again to 85C and vaporize it and then liquidize once again ?

Do you only do this for kerosine ? If I aim for making diesel should this process be necessary ? Thanks

Ideally you would separate the fractions on the fly as I'm sure IMBD will do once he gets the equipment set up.
Your set up will vary from IMBD's firstly because your reflux temperature will be targeted to diesel as the heaviest fraction produced. The first condenser downstream will be the diesel condenser into which all the fractions produced will drop into. The trick to separating those lighter fractions from the diesel is to keep the diesel at a temperature which will boil them off and condense in the next condenser downstream. You do the same trick to separate each subsequent fraction as or if you require them separated.
Hope this helps. It can take time to grasp the concept.

[imakebiodiesel]

I agree completely with excalibur, the still method is wasteful of energy and time. I only use it because I already have it and because at the early stages of my research I wanted to be able to analyse the different fractions.
Serial condensers leading away from the reflux column is the best way to separate the various fractions. When designing condensers you must include a way of controlling the temperature to get the fraction you want. There are many ways to do that, electric band heaters , adding and taking off layers of insulation, and lengthening and shortening the pipes connecting the condensers all work.
The information about bubblers and flashback arrestors is already in the thread, and although I appreciate that it can be a tedious exercise finding it if we start to repeat information the thread will be even longer and more difficult to digest.
Ideally this topic could be divided into a dozen separate threads for discussion but I dont know if the moderators are interested or willing to do this.

[lowriderzzz]

I agree completely with excalibur, the still method is wasteful of energy and time. I only use it because I already have it and because at the early stages of my research I wanted to be able to analyse the different fractions.
Serial condensers leading away from the reflux column is the best way to separate the various fractions. When designing condensers you must include a way of controlling the temperature to get the fraction you want. There are many ways to do that, electric band heaters , adding and taking off layers of insulation, and lengthening and shortening the pipes connecting the condensers all work.
The information about bubblers and flashback arrestors is already in the thread, and although I appreciate that it can be a tedious exercise finding it if we start to repeat information the thread will be even longer and more difficult to digest.
Ideally this topic could be divided into a dozen separate threads for discussion but I dont know if the moderators are interested or willing to do this.

Agree with that. lucky there is a easy and efficient way to find what you need in the thread using the advanced search. So for instance type it keywords "bubble+design" (without the "" and +) and will show you all topics contain the words blubber and design.

Also can search for posts by members - type imakebiodisel in the look for member field and will find only your posts.

I only tell this just in case you don't know it.

[sunilkm153]

90% recovery as fuels

mjohnson1, as you have probably worked out yourself you have a bad case of overcracking.
My guess is that you are using a very active catalyst such as zeolite or something similar. This produces a very high proportion of the more volatile fractions. It also has a very short working life before it cokes up which would explain the low total conversion ratio.
A smaller amount of your active catalyst mixed with a slower, clay type catalyst might just do the trick.

I am at present submitting a sample of my kerosene for testing to British Standards. I will know in a few weeks whether my fuel is up to the standard of commercial kerosene. Im fairly confident that it will pass on specific gravity, flash point, viscosity, smoke point and distillation test as can test for these myself. It may fail on colour as my fuel is not as pale as commercial kerosene.

In my latest batches in my new processor I am getting 90% conversion. The liquid output is 92% kerosene, 8% light naphtha.
The 10% residue is a black coloured paraffin wax. Both the light naphtha and the paraffin wax are saleable products used in various industrial processes.

Just a note on the use of the word gasoline or petrol to describe the light fractions derived from this process. Calling it gasoline will encourage beginners to put this fraction into the fuel tanks of their vehicles without further processing which will quickly do damage. Strictly speaking this fraction should be called naphtha. Naphtha needs to be upgraded, usually by hydrocracking to make it into gasoline. Naphtha itself is low grade, low octane fuel that has almost no lubrication or detergent qualities. From my own tests up to 25% naphtha can be added to high octane unleaded gasoline without risk of damage to the engine but no more.

dear IMBD

very efficient conversion rates compareable to commercial processors , are you using catalyst in both liquid phase and vapour phase like asad farroqui or simply in vapour phase only and if it is in vapour phase only whether there should be seperate reflux chamber and catalyst chamber or simply as you mentioned earlier on the top side inside reflux chamber with lower portion of reflux packed with ss wool.

thanks