How to turn plastic waste into diesel fuel cheaply

[sunilkm153]

Wondering if there is anybody out there that has a water restriction scenario?
When it comes to having to recycle cooling water, what seems to be the best solutions?

These days industrial cooling towers are available in small size also they are cheap these fibre reinforced plastic cooling towers can be made in capacity as low as 2 Tr which I feel is sufficient for your DIY project I am using the same FRP cooling tower with 5 Tr capacity which has excellent cooling capacity

[wheels]

Wondering if there is anybody out there that has a water restriction scenario?
When it comes to having to recycle cooling water, what seems to be the best solutions?

I am using a water chiller that I made from an old Dehumidifier. Many if these units are little compressor fridge units. I simply split the condenser from the evaporator, which is very easy to do and placed another small radiator, from another old unit, directly after the cooling radiator. The water is pumped by a small pump around in a closed circuit through the radiator and back to the water jacket I have around the still Pot. It is not perfect, but it does work by dropping the temp about 3 degree from just plain air be blown through the radiator. However, I am going to immerse the two radiators in a small bath of water/antifreeze and that should help transfer the heat far better.

[Excalibur]

Wondering if there is anybody out there that has a water restriction scenario?
When it comes to having to recycle cooling water, what seems to be the best solutions?

I haven't got water restrictions but I'm guessing that water shortage is preventing you from cooling the vapor stream to the fullest extent required.
So I'm trying to imagine your set up and how you could operate with a limited amount of water.
My thought is to use an old car radiator with attached 12v fan to cool the water by continuously recycling with an electric water pump. A possible refinement would be fit a temperature sensor to the diesel tank so that the pump only runs when the tank exceeds the set temperature. In this way the volatile fractions are efficiently re-evaporated from the diesel and shunted downstream to tank #2.

[rozier56]

rozier56

Wondering if there is anybody out there that has a water restriction scenario?
When it comes to having to recycle cooling water, what seems to be the best solutions?

[Excalibur]

Right, thanks.
How does the gas jar accommodate the surplus of off gas during the times when it needs to be restricted?

It works on a "displaced water" principle. It expands or contracts to suit the volume of gas it stores. There is no restriction on the speed at which the gas will come or go from the gas-jar itself.

Is it just that the outlet from the gas jar is small? Or do you have a regulating valve?

The regulating valve is a regular ball valve acting as a flow restrictor and is close to the burner. Better would be a gas valve with a bit more fineness to the adjustment, like that of LPG or oxy/acetylene equipment. Perhaps I fit this type in the next upgrade.

This page shows gas-jar schematic

[Col]

Right, thanks.
How does the gas jar accommodate the surplus of off gas during the times when it needs to be restricted? Is it just that the outlet from the gas jar is small? Or do you have a regulating valve?

[Excalibur]

What if I counter the vacuum by bleeding some inert purge gas into the diesel tank? That will cost money though. But I expect the pressure needed would be generated by only a small quantity of the inert gas. Or I could use some off-gas from a previous run, though I expect to burn all of it under the retort.

Inert gas won't burn when it gets to the burner head so I think LPG could work out better. I believe a simple gas-jar is a good seamless solution. It will give a half psi or so back pressure automatically providing there is the quantity of off-gas resident. The gas-jar has another very important feature though. During times of high off-gas production, this when off-gas supply to the burner needs to be restricted. The gas-jar automatically accommodates that surplus.

Notice to readers of diydiesel blog:
It came to light yesterday that some Orion-retort details pages of the blog haven't ever been accessible!! I've corrected this now but it means that the additional info is added to the 16 existing pages. The writings elaborate on instrumentation and technical articles.

[Col]

Managing vacuum

Actively pumping out liquid from a (diesel) tank will create a vacuum so the situation will need to be managed. Vacuum will lift water out of the bubbler, drawing it upstream unless there is a suitable draw-back arrestor

What if I counter the vacuum by bleeding some inert purge gas into the diesel tank? That will cost money though. But I expect the pressure needed would be generated by only a small quantity of the inert gas. Or I could use some off-gas from a previous run, though I expect to burn all of it under the retort.

[wheels]

OK centrifuge as a simpler way. but only said they had no water and mud. They say the color will not change much. sold marine type centrifuges. used. I can get from them.
also the density of the cleaned items 0740. such as xylene. very flammable. I need to diesel.

Pyrolysis is the easy part. If you are wanting to make Fuel and especially in quantity you are producing it in, you require a proper Refining plant. You need good multi stage filtration that is capable of handling the volume of liquid produced. The very first stage of it will be coarse water and sludge removal and then on in stages increasingly getting finer particle removal. High speed Centrifuge can remove particulates down to as small as 0.01 of a micron.
As I said in an earlier post, some of the coloration of the various fuel weights, are partly the natural color. Heavy weight will be darker than light weight fuels with the very light weights being clear.
For breaking up the Fuels into their specific gravities, you need to refine the liquid further. You need specific and very well controlled temperatures on each pot. Remember that real Diesel is a specific weight of oil. It is not made by taking a Heavy weight and then thinning it down with something really light weight. The same goes for the Diesel you are producing. You want to have a specific narrow band of Fuel weight. You do not want too much of anything above or below .8 SPG, as these other hydrocarbon components burn very differently. Some can burn too fast causing knocking and excessive heat, or burn poorly producing too much soot and black smoke and clog up the engine and cause excessive wear.

[kedigen]

OK centrifuge as a simpler way. but only said they had no water and mud. They say the color will not change much. sold marine type centrifuges. used. I can get from them.
also the density of the cleaned items 0740. such as xylene. very flammable. I need to diesel.

[wheels]

excalibur, thank you for information.
but blog where you write? I could not find.
Did appropriate spec below to zeolite:

Color: Green, Grey, Beige
Physical Form: Granules
Odor: Odorless
Solubility: Insoluble
Boiling Point: Not applicable
Freezing Point: Not applicable
Melting Point: 1800 F
Specific Gravity 1.9 -2.4 g / cm3

Catalysts require heat to activate. Zeolite requires 450 to 500 degC to make it work. This is because the heavy Hydrocarbons need to be in a vapor stage when contacting the Zeolite so as not to saturate it with Tar or heavy sludgy stuff. Contact time is also of importance.
Filtration is important. You need several forms of filtration. The best is centrifugal because it takes a range of sizes and weights of particles and is fast and does not clog up and some centrifuges can be continuos running.

[Excalibur]

Kedigen, look at the bottom of each of my posts for the diydiesel.blogspot.co.nz link. Click that link then on the right side click:Test equipment, sampling, additives page...
The extensive information on the blog is intended to be helpful but please realize it is a prototype. The setup and spec may change at any time.

[kedigen]

excalibur, thank you for information.
but blog where you write? I could not find.
Did appropriate spec below to zeolite:

Color: Green, Grey, Beige
Physical Form: Granules
Odor: Odorless
Solubility: Insoluble
Boiling Point: Not applicable
Freezing Point: Not applicable
Melting Point: 1800 F
Specific Gravity 1.9 -2.4 g / cm3

[Excalibur]

[kedigen]

material polyethylene. specific gravity less than 0.800. my specific gravity meter measures 800/900. could not measure it. I think this fuel 0.740 / 0.750. There residue at the bottom. I filtration with activated carbon . it was very flammable. 100c at reflux was manufactured. Is there a mistake?