plastic waste to oil/fuel improved pyrolysis reactor

hello you all
in this video i will show you my improved pyrolysis reactor which pyrolyticly turns plastic waste into combustable gases and pyrolysis oil, this oil can be refined into gasoline and diesel
this video is only a test run of the system without measuring the gas consumption or the weight of the used plastic. exact data will be collected for the next video! but the process will be explained in this video and also how to build such a reactor.

[hummervs]

I worked for a plastics to fuel company building then running the plants as we scaled up in size.
Don’t use 3 or 7. 3 is of coarse pvc and the chlor recombines with the hc and creates hydrocloric acid. Does wonders on the system, destroys fuel system of the engine, and is direct output of acid rain- way worse than the sulfuric base rain created from the old diesel.
7 is basically anything not rate-able so you can get any kind of chemical reaction- absolutely chaos at a chemical level.
As you pointed out the styro issue, and without divulging millions in investment knowledge I will just say- don’t run it either. So that eliminates 6
Polypropylene (5) has a high flash point and chem 101 will show you the issues mixing pp with pe. So you can run it, but it is far better to run it in a separate batch as heating losses make it not worth running combined with pe.

So...1, 2, 4. And if you price out 1 & 5, you’ll find recycling value is way more than cost of fuel retail.


Also- you need to remove contamination so we learned to shred, wash, and with specific gravity use as separation everything. The amount of shampoo, milk, sugar, etc needed to contaminate a run is ridiculously small. But our pyrolysis chamber was 12’ diameter, just over 30’ long each. So shredding made sense for us to do in separation and cleaning. At home- rinse and let dry in the kitchen or garage. Separation by number.

You can definitely use the butane, propane, etc you are just burning off as the heating fuel to continue the process is you make a feed system so you can do continuous feed or run two pyro chambers. Number one non-compressibles to heat unit number 2.

Also a better method of eliminating oxygen besides co2 is a vacuum pump when doing a pyro your size. Get the a/c vacuum pump from harbor freight. Then your heating process is better starting below atmospheric pressure.

Then look into making a small distillation tower. Product quality improves greatly. You will pull out paraffin which can recrack and speed process greatly.


Sally safety warning for doing this at home. Your literally making a bomb. The temperature ratings of say an SF150 flange (150 psi rating obvi) at these temps goes down to a paltry 25psi. 7psi is actually the greatest rate to process at for volume and quality. Learn to regulate there. Have an ability to blow off pressure and expect it to be a fire ball when it occurs. Watch other YouTube videos for what kind of fireball you get from just 1 gallon of gas. Now have it explode at just 10psi. It will turn a 3, 000 sq ft house to embers quickly. Remember output is 1:1. 1lbs of plastic equals 1lbs of fuel.

Why isn’t this already everywhere:
I was in meetings with the head of recycling from Republic and we were planning to obtain their entire supply from the western US. Obama’s epa admin refused to classify this fuel. It doesn’t count as alternative fuel because it is crude base. It doesn’t count as crude base because it has already been processed once. Then the fact that this makes the fuel partial to full (depending on your process and quality) synthetic fuel. So synthetics are a more regulated portion of the hc industry. We hoped Trump would improve it but 2 sides of the same coin.
Look at my profile pic - I am not a tree hugger. I also am not pro big oil. I had great hopes for this but unky sam is holding it under thumb for some reason. High volume production cannot break even doing this unless oil prices are above $78 bbl to do it with less than $50M you would have to have fuel above $90 bbl. But thise numbers are all based on government allowing it- which they won’t right now. No new distillation towers are allowed from EPA still that are needed for this process. No reason given other than ‘green’.
So until a large change is made in one or both of the political parties, this is going nowhere. I’ve met with the guy running these as power production facilities at waste plants. He is skirting laws barely to do that and isn’t allowed to produce any fuel or output power not consumed on site.

Good luck to ya. Be safe, you’re playing with fire on a huge liquid & gaseous pipe bomb.

[zero-waste]

I fully agree with Hazel Chem: All PE (marked #2 or marked #4), PP (marked #5) and PS (marked #6) plastics must be recycled, not just used as feedstock for pyrolysis oil. The only exception could be if contaminated or very dirty. Hard to remove contamination, fx. paint layer/glue/hardened oils, makes theses types of plastic uneconomical to recycle for the time being. In the near future all contaminated plastics can be recycled, as more chemical recycling plants are being constructed. Contaminants in plastic for chemical recycling are not affected by this process, thus it's possible to recycle virtually all waste plastic; no matter how dirty it is.
It's worth noting that PS plastic can cause some problems with the pyrolysis oil. After a few weeks of storage a jelly like substance starts forming at the bottom of the container, then spreads slowly but surely through the whole content. Sometimes the pyrolysis oil already contains jelly like lumps right from production. The solution is to use a catalyst (Zeolite or another of the hydrated aluminosilicate minerals) to crack the molecules during the pyrolysis process.
Obvious plastic types for conversion to pyrolysis oil are the thermosetting plastics which cannot be remelted, i.e. epoxy, bakelite (creates formaldehydes), plastics with high filler content (fx. PP with Natrium Carbonate/"Sodium Carbonate"), and similar problematic types. Some of the plastic types in the collective group marked #7 (construction plastics) can be pretty hard to sell, with only a few buyers worldwide, and are therefore mostly pyrolyzed. This is also the case for the odd alloys belonging to the group marked #7 plastics (fx. PMMA/PC, and several other plastic alloys). In order to sell these types, a minimum quantity of 10 or 20 tons of the individual type in each shipment is required for anyone to be interested.
Another problem is PE, PP, and PS plastics with added glass fibers (marked: +GF), these are added from 5 to 30% (occasionally up to 50%) glass fibers. During the recycling process the glass fibers will unavoidably break up into tiny short ultra thin glass splinters, thereby loosing their ability to reinforce the plastic; it becomes just an annoying filler. Nobody wants to buy that, so pyrolyzing is the solution. It's worth adding that the biproduct carbon black can neither be sold because it's heavily contaminated with broken glass fibers; though it can be used as fuel in the fire chamber underneath the pyrolysis vessel. The same process goes for glass fiber reinforced resins (fx. hulls from old boats), although technically advanced pyrolysis units can recover the glass fibers as well, provided the glassfibers are long enough and the pyrolysis residue consists of mainly glass fibers (i.e. boat hulls/windmill wings).
Be aware that a large part of plastics from WEEE (Waste Electric and Electronic Equipment) contains added Fire Retardants (marked: /FR). These are toxic! They are either Bromine(brominated) or Chlorine(chlorinated) based, and additional hazardous plasticizer- or stabilizer chemicals may also be present in such feedstock. Never try to pyrolyze such material unless you have a professional unit capable of catching these elements and extracting them completely from the pyrolysis oil. Not all plastics from WEEE contains these chemicals, but a thorough sorting is definitely needed. Besides the pyrolysis oil, the Bromine and the Chlorine can be recovered and sold, or used for other chemical reactions in situ.
Basically, don't try to pyrolyze PET (marked #1). It contains Terephthalate which will sublime and immediately crystalize as soon as it leaves the hot pyrolysis vessel, thus clogging up the tubes with a possible dangerous explosion as a result. You can sell the clean and/or relative clean part for recycling. In fact the remaining dirty and/or broken pieces can actually be processed, but only by a very sophisticated way of pyrolysis. It's solely possible if you have a highly specialized two stage pyrolysis unit capable of maintaining a precise 700 Celsius temperature in the second chamber; and only if you really know what you're doing! The resulting pyrolysis oil will contain at least 30% Benzene (sometimes over 45%), a highly volatile hydrocarbon compound with a boiling point of 80 Celsius; very useful as a solvent for chemical processes. The Benzene is separated from the pyrolysis oil by fractional distillation. The pyrolysis oil can also be used as fuel, provided you have a closed storage/feeding system for your burner, and a fire chamber capable of maintaining a very high temperature. Benzene is highly carcinogenic and dangerous! Benzene causes central nervous system damage acutely, and bone marrow damage chronically. Spills are also problematic as Benzene vapor is heavier than air and therefore rather difficult to get rid of. Benzene vapor also presents a serious explosion risk!
It's popular to pyrolyze old car tires, but this presents a major environmental problem. In the Western World a limit of only max 0.5% sulfur in fuel is allowed. Pyrolysis oil from any kind of rubber feedstock will contain over 5% sulfur! It's forbidden to use as is, but it can be sold to refineries that upgrades such low quality "crude oil" and during the refining process removes the excess sulfur. The carbon black residue, the biproduct of pyrolysis, will also contain sulfur. It's prohibited to burn, but there's no need to try to purify it as it can easily be sold to rubber producers; it already contains the necessary sulfur needed for the rubber synthesis.
Generally, stay far away from PVC (marked #3). Tremendous challenges for pyrolyzing this plastic type are present. From a technical view the main problem is it's made of 57% Chlorine. It's the only plastic type containing Chlorine, and it's literally not for amateurs. Chlorine gas will kill you instantly! Seen in a health perspective, all plastics contains some additives, but PVC is the only plastic that always contains a myriad of added hazardous chemicals (10 to 70%), and a small percentage of poisonous Cadmium as well.
Plasticizing additives (primarily to soften up the PVC, but also fx. to make it resistant to degradation by sunlight) includes the controversial phthalates (most commonly (di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate, DEHP) which are carcinogenic and mutagenic (endocrine disruptors)!
It's a complicated process to catch and remove all these hazardous contaminants, but certainly worth it. Besides pyrolysis oil it mainly yields a huge quantity of free HCl (Hydrochloric acid), useful for lots of chemical processes; after it has been purified! Due to the Chlorine vapor(gas) attacking almost everything, this process requires a professional well constructed pyrolysis unit, made entirely of acid resistant (high Nickel content, 52%) stainless steel; such as the one I have.

[antoniospanayiotou]

Anything that gets rid of plastic is fine by me!! Well done.

[tomhicks]

I have only one thing to say: WOW. This is the most encouraging news of the decade. Thanks.

[stevenmayhew]

That flare gas can be fed back into the burner via a second inlet to the same tube as the one connected to the propane tank.

[bill]

Congratulations you are solving the problem of plastic in the world "god bless you" ingenious

[terrancefields]

Great job!. Those are nuts and bolts for wrenches not screws. I want to make my own still like Franklin County, VA. They are experts at this.

[frizzlefry]

If every neighbourhood had a small unit like this then self sustaining will become a thing, nice. ( I served my time in an oil refinery)

[callaghan]

the waste gas could be redirected to the burner saving on lpg to heat the reactor

[johnsanchez]

I’m glad I’m not the only person doing this and forgetting about the material world. About a year ago I made a copper Liebig condenser for distilling spirits but ended up giving up drinking. So the Liebig was just sitting there. Collecting dust and looking awesome. Instead I used it for this. It looks very similar to your setup. Mine is smaller scale as it was started at a time when I was slightly more ignorant than now. I Got it all for free. Just time and labor. I pulled almost everything from scavenged appliances. I wanted to prove it was not only possible but the parts that came from name brand sh*t is usually good quality. I Learned a TON of info. Took me at least a year. From within my inner sub-conscience, to the complicated side of my conscience mind, I unknowingly initiated a personal renaissance that hasn’t stopped since.

Good work here my friend. Go and inspire others to do the same. Preach it as if one would preach the Gospel. It truly is our only hope in about 20 maybe 30 short years.
READERS: Oil will NOT last forever…
(However, hydrogen gas combustion seems like a promising technology too.)

[pawelblaszcvzyk]

A few years ago I worked on such a reactor equivalent every few tons of plastic entered. The material could be added continuously without blanking the device

[Stif]

My Energy Engineering Master of Science thesis was all about pyrolysis. Great project, keep it going!

[ClemoVernandez]

Very nicely built reactor. I'm very impressed.

[ryanehlis]

Very good!! On a very large scale a plant could take in tons of plastics cleaned from the ocean to, oil could be sold to refineries.

[fokkerdred]

This is very encouraging news. Thank you for everything you're doing.

[Goldfinger]

Three thumbs up!

As soon as there is a meaningful price on carbon dioxide nobody will (expensively!) burn this precious hydrocarbons (plastics & fuels) but return it as feedstock for a recycling cycle. That’s the future for the petrochemical industry.

Everything is there. Even hippies can do it on their island or in a backyard. The only thing missing is a price on carbon dioxide.

[nirodper]

I think that just connecting the gas output to the burner tube would be enough, as the reaction starts you can lower the propane flow.

Vessel pressurization is not needed, a typical regulator reduces pressure to less than 0.5psi so that is all you need in the reaction vessel.

I also think it could be good to watercool the collection flask to make sure the lower fractions don't evaporate, you can also improvise a cooling tower with a pvc pipe and a "T" (search "bong cooler" or look up tech ingredient's videos on it) to be able to scale up things without needing a lot of water and making sure lower fractions don't evaporate (higher gasoline yield)

[Tate.TopG.]

I am amazed. I don't even know what to say. I never thought about it. If you even sell the product I will buy it in a heartbeat.
You have a new sub

[ColdFuse]

I'm a 3D printing enthusiasts, and like 75% of all the plastic I use eventually goes into the bin. It would be awesome if I could send all of my waste to someone like you and know it was turned into something useful instead of ending up in a landfill or a "recycling" plant.

[astroknott]

This should be done on an industrial scale. It would actually make recycling plastics practical and useful.