How to turn plastic waste into diesel fuel cheaply

[boywonder]

Jetijs do you think using engine exhaust gas as a heat source for the propane/reactor tank would work? By placing the reactor into a larger tank that has exhaust gas passed through it...

[mbrownn]

that is not air, those bubbles are formed by overheated plastic which forms gasses and vapors.

I stand corrected

[mina]

This is great work and will help not only to eleminate plastic waste, but it will also cut down on the cost of vehicle fuel. A burner powered by its own fuel will be the greatest improvement as the cost of running the system will only be that of plastic waste.

I was just wondering why you did not burn off the waste gasses in a burner underneath the main reactor chamber so you could harvest some of the BTUs?

Also, are normal drinking water bottles and 2 liter Pepsi bottles useable?

[Jetijs]

Jetijs do you think using engine exhaust gas as a heat source for the propane/reactor tank would work? By placing the reactor into a larger tank that has exhaust gas passed through it...

This should be doable, exhaust gasses have more than enough heat to do this, it is just a technical issue and I haven't thought about that much.

[Jetijs]

I was just wondering why you did not burn off the waste gasses in a burner underneath the main reactor chamber so you could harvest some of the BTUs?

Also, are normal drinking water bottles and 2 liter Pepsi bottles useable?

The current setup is heated with electricity, there are resistance wire coils imbeded in white aluminum oxide bricks around the reactor. There is no easy way to put the flame there also, it would just mess everything up. You need a different design for that.

[hurkatm]

Self sustained Pyrolysis design.

Dear Friends
It will be of great use if we could use flue gases to heat reactor chamber and produce Diesel.
I have designed the simple sketch, I am planning to implement it.
Hope so this should work.
Please comment if there is any fault.

[otpadnoulje]

Dear Jetijs!

I have a problem. I would like to make diesel set up. What will be better? Waste oil to diesel or , waste plastic to diesel. I have seen this machine. YouTube - Homemade Diesel

What is your expirience with black oil?

Please , help me !

Thanks!

[Jetijs]

It is easier and faster to use waste motor oil to get diesel. The process is the same, the temperatures also, but it is way faster and more efficient than whem plastics are used as source. So it all depends on what resources you have available, but then again, the setup is the same, no mater what your source is.

[hurkatm]

Hi minoly

Have a look at this page:
Directory: Blest Machine recycles plastic back into oil - PESWiki
It is about Japanese commercial devices. But those cost so much that almost no one considers using this tech at home. Japanese put all kind of LCD's, sophisticated power management systems and monitoring devices in their units that really does nothing except increase the price. This is easy, cheap and almost anyone can build one without taking out a second mortgage on his house The way we do this is not the only way nor the best, after you know the process, there is lots and lots of room for improvements.

You could build a small table top device for around 300-500$ maybe even less. But I wouldn't use a pressure cooker as they have a heat resistant rubber seal around the lid, it is good for food cooking temperatures, but wont hold 400 degrees celsius, it will melt and leak. Also you need a custom heating element, because ordinary heating coils that are used in water boilers, tea pots or electric stoves wont last long, because of their thin resistance wire. You need nichrome or kanthal resistance wire with diameter around 1.5mm, this will do well. The seal between the reactor and the lid is very important, it must be hermetic and heat resistant, we have tried many ways before and no seal material lasted long, all eventually fail and let the hot plastic vapor seep out, this is not acceptable. We tried heat resistant silicon for use on chimneys and other commercial stuff, not good enough. Eventually we found that the thing that works best is conical groove and a wedge that fits inside that groove around the lid, like you can see in the CAD drawing. When the lid is bolted to the reactor chamber, the fit is airtight and hermetical. The pressures in the system are very low, only such to be sufficient to bubble through the bubbler, this makes it very much safer than commercial flash pyrolysis devices that are also very expensive and affordable only by large companies.

In our case the bubbler at the end is just as a flashback arrester that prevents fire going into the reactor, but the gas really burns so slow, that it is not really needed, but better to leave it in, safety is never too much. Also the bubbler can be used to eliminate the need of condensing tanks, because the vapors cool sufficiently when bubbling through the water to turn into liquid fuel, that can the be poured off as it does not dissolve in water but floats above it. The produced gas should be burned or vented outside.

Dear Jetijs
First of all I would like to thank you for sharing this great thecnical know how of making diesel from waste plastic.
I hop you have gone through my previous post to make this self sufficient unit.
I have small doubt, you said you tried withh all kinds of sealing materials but the performance was not as desired and finally you made a "V" shape grove for sealing. I want to know what is the depth of grove and any kind of sealing material is also used with grove.
Once again thanks for your efforts and help.

[dutchdivco]

Gee, Jetsis

I'm so grateful to you for sharing this information! Now, I'm too lazy to read back thru the old posts, on this thread, so I want YOU to take time away from working on this project, to answer my questions, which I could easily find the answers to, simply by reading thru the earlier posts.

Sorry if this seems a little harsh, but this is the umpteenth time we have seen posts like this, and its getting really OLD!Jim

[hurkatm]

Leakage

Dear Jetijs,
Please reply to my earlier mail.
Also I Need your guidence to make one reactor. Please can you post the actual dimensions of your project. as what ever literature I have read till now on Pyrolysis conclude that Temperature and Residance Time are two inportant factor which decide tha Quality and Quantity of Diesel and other products that are produced.
Also I have a doubt that What will happen if there is a leakage and Air/Oxygen enters inside the the Reactor at say peak period i.e. at about 400 deg. will it turn into explosion (Fire) as flamable gases will get oxygen or just that batch will be failed and plastic will turn into solid lump.
Thanks in advance for your quick reply.

[islander]

[islander]

patent about converting waste motor oil into diesel

low temp process without catalyst

Process for converting waste motor oil to diesel fuel - US Patent 5885444 Description


(hard to read for me, I'm not english native language) it seems to me the reason they have no coke in reactor is they don't completely crack the waste oil ?

[otpadnoulje]

Islander, your working temperature is tooooo heigh. It should be under 400c.

As higher temperature as much coke and more uncondensable gaz. The best way is 360 - 370 c.

After all you will need additive.

[islander]

YouTube - Homemade Diesel

I found very interesting information, seems very related to waste oil cracking.
http://www.coking.com/DECOKTUT.pdf

it seems very needed to use a coker, my first set up was foul of coke after little production ?

Islander, your working temperature is tooooo heigh. It should be under 400c.

As higher temperature as much coke and more uncondensable gaz. The best way is 360 - 370 c.

After all you will need additive.