How to turn plastic waste into diesel fuel cheaply

[jonathan]

retort

thanks a lot excalibur for this sharing very important.l having proplems but l am 100% sure l have tempreture proplem my retort is 24 inch heght and 12.5 wide as i say before l find plastic doesnt melt well after 1hour 30 minutes. l will try with insulation

[Excalibur]

jonathan, sorry you're having problems. Good insulation can make a big difference to efficiency. We need good economics for heat especially where energy is expensive. I started thinking about how much heat was required to distill hydrocarbons. I searched out a report from mid 90's.

Conventional atmospheric and vacuum crude distillation units require about 100,000 BTUs (British Thermal Units)of furnace energy per barrel processed. Since a barrel of oil contains about 6,200,000 BTU's, the required furnace energy amounts to about 1.6 percent of the processed oil.

One oil barrel= 42 US gallons, which is about 159 liters or 35 imperial gallons.

So therefore, 100,000 BTU or 29.3Kw per barrel.

Naturally, the figures are from some very efficient refinery plants where oil companies have been developing their processes over decades. Just how close to that 1.6% us DIY can get will be interesting.

[jonathan]

retort

l try my pyrolysis system again after 1 hour and 30 minutes no gas come out from my system so l stop my system after it cools down l find about 300ml of yellow fuel and l light it and burn. l open my retort and find my plastic didnt melt well. my conclusion is it is very important to use insulation. l will try it with insulation

[Excalibur]

Outcome after an hour and a half, diesel Excellent http://im63.gulfup.com/i9e2ri.jpg

Good work. It's always a thrill to see the first drips after all the hours of hard work and preparation. Thanks for sharing.

[dedooo]

Outcome after an hour and a half, diesel Excellent http://im63.gulfup.com/i9e2ri.jpg

[Beyond Biodiesel]

Hello all, Mr. excalibu, I've pyrolysis process for waste oil used within the reactor, the result is a net oil smelly very pungent and color tends to Green, Is there any advice about it, thanks

If the offensive smell is very sharp, like chlorine bleach, then you have chlorinated hydrocarbon contamination of your WMO. It really is best to avoid processing chlorinated hydrocarbon contamination WMO, because it is extremely toxic, and make bad fuel anyway.

[Excalibur]

Hello all, Mr. excalibu, I've pyrolysis process for waste oil used within the reactor, the result is a net oil smelly very pungent and color tends to Green, Is there any advice about it, thanks

My fuel has the same tendency for the green color and the pungent odor.
I think the odor is hydrogen sulfide (H2S)
If it's H2S then Wiki has some good clues as to how to deal with it.

H2S is soluble in water. Could agitating the diesel with water reduce the smell??

H2S has a boiling point of -60*C. I believe the smell does reduce with some time exposed to atmosphere.

Otherwise there's some good reading on the subject The book refers to the smell as mercaptans.

Edit: I was just talking about this subject today with a friend. He said the Shell book quoted trickling across limestone as one method for smell removal?? Sorry I must read the book again when I get time.

[Excalibur]

Very nice design and very helpfull, i built a simmilar one, it is not ready yet, i will put some pictures soon, i see you have some nifty improvements, the Draw back arrestor is a new thing to me, it is there to prevent water to be sucked up from the bubler?

Yes, its' designed to automatically prevent bubbler water from being sucked upstream when the retort cools and contracts.

Also, the Flashback arrestor i had some dificulties managing to build one, since i can't find fine steel wool so i'we used some kitchen steel sponges, your design is something simmilar or you use other matterials? I was thinking a one made from a car exhaust catalyzer...!

I used lathe swarf/turnings but most any fireproof material that creates a sort of labyrinth would work. From memory one object of a flashback arrestor is to cool the flame propagation below its' auto-ignition temperature.

I see you have a heat exchanger/condenser, i was planning for my diesel trap to act as condensor , may i ask why you chose this design?

Thanks Excalibur, great work as always!

The diesel reservoir needs to be held at such a temperature that it boils out any unwanted volatile fractions. I reasoned that a good way to control this was to adjust the temperature of the condensate dropping into it. For example, if the diesel reservoir was too low in temp, the incoming condensate temp would be raised. The opposite would apply if the temp was too high. In my Orion design, I heat exchange with the ingoing oil feedstock to the retort. Perhaps I'll do a schematic of the oil feed circuit, it would be easier than explaining.

[Col]

In a plastic injection moulding machine there is no oxigen at all in the barrel.
Once the plastic is melted the air is pushed out to the back.
If you had air trapped in the plastic it would give you a bad product in the mould.
A very small screw/barrel gives you up to 100 liters of plastic per hour.
These barrels are fitted on 75 tons machines.(clamp force).
The only problem with these screws is, you need a very strong motor.
Normally its driven by a hydraulic motor.

Right, very helpful. Thx.
Col

[dedooo]

Hello all, Mr. excalibu, I've pyrolysis process for waste oil used within the reactor, the result is a net oil smelly very pungent and color tends to Green, Is there any advice about it, thanks

[fox32]

In a plastic injection moulding machine there is no oxigen at all in the barrel.
Once the plastic is melted the air is pushed out to the back.
If you had air trapped in the plastic it would give you a bad product in the mould.
A very small screw/barrel gives you up to 100 liters of plastic per hour.
These barrels are fitted on 75 tons machines.(clamp force).
The only problem with these screws is, you need a very strong motor.
Normally its driven by a hydraulic motor.

I see, it will be usless without proper motors or hidraulics. I have a excavator hidraulic piston that used to lift the bucket, i was thinking to adapt that somehow, but i guess it will be quite a hassle...

[fox32]

Very nice design and very helpfull, i built a simmilar one, it is not ready yet, i will put some pictures soon, i see you have some nifty improvements, the Draw back arrestor is a new thing to me, it is there to prevent water to be sucked up from the bubler?

Also, the Flashback arrestor i had some dificulties managing to build one, since i can't find fine steel wool so i'we used some kitchen steel sponges, your design is something simmilar or you use other matterials? I was thinking a one made from a car exhaust catalyzer...

I see you have a heat exchanger/condenser, i was planning for my diesel trap to act as condensor , may i ask why you chose this design?

Thanks Excalibur, great work as always!

[Excalibur]

FYI. Talk of LPG/propane cylinder wall thickness got me thinking, so I located a number of them which have been cut open. I measured each with an imperial micrometer. The thinnest was .085" and heaviest .125", others were in between. All were the 9kg variety except the .125" which was a 60L auto cylinder.

After numerous requests for schematic diagrams, I have initiated a series of them using Open Office Draw. The 1st is an overview of my plant while the 2nd is the turk burner head. Others are being considered. There is a new, dedicated page on my DIY Diesel blog Orion Schematic Diagram Library
I hope this helps.

[Chris@NL]

In a plastic injection moulding machine there is no oxigen at all in the barrel.
Once the plastic is melted the air is pushed out to the back.
If you had air trapped in the plastic it would give you a bad product in the mould.
A very small screw/barrel gives you up to 100 liters of plastic per hour.
These barrels are fitted on 75 tons machines.(clamp force).
The only problem with these screws is, you need a very strong motor.
Normally its driven by a hydraulic motor.

[Col]

liquid plastic feed mechanism

Over the weekend I reflected on another idea for continuous feed system based upon pneumatic pumping. A large retort with a cone shaped bottom and a wide seal-able top could be filled with your feed stock, then the lid closed, then heated to the transition temperature of the plastic feed stock. The pressure vessel is pressurized using an inert gas, such as CO2 to about 5-10 PSI. Then a lower valve is opened and the now liquid feed stock will move into the retort at whatever rate you want, and you close the valve if you want to stop the feed.

The valve would have to be able to handle the temperature of your plastic feed stock at its transition temperature.

Very nice BBD! I like the simplicity, it seems like it would be reliable, controllable and useable at any scale. What else could we want?
Col