Another way to get cheap fuel- waste plastic

[Smoky12v]

Last night I was googling on WMO and came across this thread about how to turn plastic into diesel fuel.

http://www.energeticforum.com/renewable-energy/7040-how-turn-plastic-waste-into-diesel-fuel-cheaply.html

What really got my attention is that if anybody running on blended WMO/WVO and want to make it 100% cheap/free fuel, we can make diesel and some gasoline out of waste plastic so we can use that to blend the WO. While it does require some energy to process but we can use WMO or the diesel to heat the reactor then it'll be self-sustained. The guy who made the thread is in Lativa so I don't know how it compare to here in US but it cost him 8 cents in electricity to produce a liter of fuel.

another cool point, he can buy $50 worth of shredded plastic (1,000 kg, or about 2,200lbs) from a recycler to make a ton of diesel. 1 gallon of diesel weights about 7.15 pounds so 2,000/7.15= approximately 283 gallons of diesel fuel for "$50". Hell, even the left over charcoal in the reactor can be burned in a stove or something.

I am working on to get started on running on WMO in my 12v CTD and I'll buy RUG for now and this plastic recycling may be in my garage someday.

 

[kerrynzl]

A few lies are being told there.

When you Visbreak the polymers , only a percentage is recoverable [visbreaking is distilling]

you can only recover a percentage of liquid portion , there will also be uncondensable gases [ short chain hydrocarbons ] which usually get looped back into the furnace.
After distilling off the desirable liquid potion there is also a heavy residue [ basically long chain hydrocarbons ] that can be “Hydro-cracked” or “steam-reformed” at very high temperatures
[But not with that equipment]

To successfully do this process [ not batch experiments on the internet ] requires quite a bit of investment , and a large supply of feedstock.
But WHY BOTHER.

It is expensive to manufacture polymers from crude oil, and polymers can be thermally recycled cheaply.
The September price for PET [drink bottles] is $0.27 per lb or $594-00 metric ton.

You’d be better off collecting the plastics and exporting it to China. and use the proceeds to buy Diesel fuel

 

[Blind Driver2]

A few lies are being told there.

When you Visbreak the polymers , only a percentage is recoverable [visbreaking is distilling]

you can only recover a percentage of liquid portion , there will also be uncondensable gases [ short chain hydrocarbons ] which usually get looped back into the furnace.
After distilling off the desirable liquid potion there is also a heavy residue [ basically long chain hydrocarbons ] that can be “Hydro-cracked” or “steam-reformed” at very high temperatures
[But not with that equipment]

To successfully do this process [ not batch experiments on the internet ] requires quite a bit of investment , and a large supply of feedstock.
But WHY BOTHER.

It is expensive to manufacture polymers from crude oil, and polymers can be thermally recycled cheaply.
The September price for PET [drink bottles] is $0.27 per lb or $594-00 metric ton.

You’d be better off collecting the plastics and exporting it to China. and use the proceeds to buy Diesel fuel

In other words...."not free"

 

[Brad S.]

Along those lines, how hard is it to pull the oil from old tires and old rubber stuff???

 

[Blind Driver2]

Along those lines, how hard is it to pull the oil from old tires and old rubber stuff???

Not worth the trouble. I don't want anything getting that hot in my shop especially when wmo is free.

 

[kerrynzl]

Along those lines, how hard is it to pull the oil from old tires and old rubber stuff???

Here ya go!

I Imagine that the EPA or OSHA will "lynch you " if you tried this at home.

This was a tire pyrolysis plant in the middle of nowhere in Guangxi, China [ it would've been easier to find a moonshine ‘still in the Appalachians ]
I apologise for the poor quality photos, the owner was really wary of foreigners visiting his operation and he wouldn’t let me take any photos.

Basically the 2 machines were like giant "front loading" tumble clothes driers, Workers had to stack tires inside [ by hand ] then it was fired up on LPG burners and had electric motors to rotate it.[ they had diesel generators running from the oil they produced ]
Once it got up to 350c + the gases were piped off it through a water filled “cooling trough” to a collection tank. All the un-condensable gases were then pumped off the collection tank and fed to the burners [ the LPG was switched off ]

After about 8 hours of tumbling and distilling the machine was shut down and left to cool to about 80-100c, Then some Chinese labourers wearing safety bandanas [ they looked like Mexican Bandits ] went inside the machine with wheelbarrows and shovels and remove all the "steel" and "carbon black’

There was no ventilation or safety equipment for the workers [ except for the bandana breathing apparatus ] and the heat was unbearable.
Each machine would produce approx. 16 metric tons of oil per day and about 8 tons of carbon black which they sold.

The biggest danger was probably getting caught
.
There were other minor issues that didn't worry the average "risk taker"........................... like the piping of the fumes straight from the top of the oil storage tank to the burners without any shutoff valves [ or 1 way check valves ]
I assume not wearing any safety gear would make it easier to "run for your life" if there was any flashback from the burner

There was some innovative technology though
Like the un-condensable gases bubbling up from the bottom of the storage tank, this prevented air getting sucked back down the lines which converts pyrolysis into combustion [ in layman's terms............”boom!!" ]

In China this sort of Operation is quite illegal because of their environmental issues, but their "bureaucratic efficiency" [often called corruption ] a simple planning “Fee” on a regular basis to the right people can usually circumvent these problems

So if anybody is thinking about building their own refinery, you don't need much technology or permission to do it [ in fact it would be easier to achieve without consent ]

..............Just don't do it in my neighbourhood

 

[subway]

thanks Kerry for posting that, i am not saying i want that in my backyard at all but it is something to see alright!

 

[Kalashnikov]

The same guy who did the plastics tried tires first. I recall him saying it worked but produced less fuel that was dirty than the plastic stuff. The plastic yeilded good results. IIRC you will only get about 90% of what you put in foir plastic. It was decently high. The tires I think were only 60%ish, maybe 70.

I'm sure you could gather quite a bit of the proper plastics. #2 gave the best results I believe.

Even if you only got 80% return, that's 1600 gallons of fuel from $600 worth of plastic as opposed to paying $6400 for 1600 gallons of diesel @4 gallon.

I don't see any lies here. If you're read up these reports, it specifically gives a rough efficiency, cost, procedures, etc. I have been meaning to try this for a while.

I believe a similar method is used to convert old paints into mineral spirits or similar. That could also be used as fuel if mixed with WMO as well.

It may not be free but neither is processing WMO or bio, especially the way some people do it.

After all, this is the same principle as refining crude.