This is cool. I am getting ready to build a smaller version with some high school seniors here in the Philippines. I was thinking about using two condensers with spigots to trap the first and second run (you could do three for a clean third run) and capturing the cooled end gas to help fuel the retort or burn chamber. Nice video!
Thankyou to everybody for your comments and interest. My relocation had made it difficult for me to continue on this project but I am back home and would like to begin working on an improved (cleaner more efficient) version sometime this summer. To everybody with serious inquiries and interest in wanting to build your own, I'm sorry I am barely getting back to this but will try to reply to everybody in a timely manner from now on. Thank you again to all of you for your patience and to everybody for keeping the conversation going while I was away
existentialtexas food for thought if you were to pressurize your 55 gallon drum the temperature needed to convert the plastic to a gaseous state would be reduced.
+curious mind Actually, if you reduced the size of the container holding the plastic, you would get a faster burn and hence more pressure. It would also be easier to remove the "char" (the residue, mostly carbon) from the bottom. Welcome back and good luck! BTW, did yo get an "A" on your project?
Keep going, don't stop, America needs young brilliant minds like yours. A future in clean energy is a must, and we do need to get rid of the plastics we already have , you are doing it, keep up the good work. Sharing this to FB, along with the guy from China who is also doing this. Thank you.
Gasification is awesome and all the air pollution is collected, its not incineration. This is so simple and it works. Wood to syngas, Tires to crude oil. Your the guy that will build a ship to clean the oceans of plastic and run it off gasification of the Plastic. Keep up the good work.
I notice you aren't collecting or using the syngas that is being produced. That can power gasoline engines to generate electricity or burn to run your system. Syngas is mostly hydrogen so it burns very clean and the exhaust is water. By the way, you can process that oil again and make more syngas.
The Dude Guy It is produced along with a liquid, commercial Pyrolysis machines only use an external heat at the start. I’ve seen a UA-cam vid of a commercial Pyrolysis machine that continuously feeds plastic in so just keeps producing constant supply of low Carbon fuel and an inert Carbon dry residue that is used in tiles, bricks etc.
@@Kiyarose3999 There's a backyard mechanic in New Zealand who's using part of the resulting pyrolysis to feed the combustion ua-cam.com/video/cTtAElSO7zE/v-deo.html
my family owns a scrap yard in Brownfield, Tx and i think this is amazing i have been thinking a lot lately about how to do something like this. i want to go ahead and try this out as my next project but eventually i hope to be able to convert plastic to liquid form and mode it into new recycled plastic material. this is very inspiring thank you so much for sharing
GREAT job! It is so great that you are doing this. You will learn so much and in the future this will be one of the building blocks that support your overall, well diversified, knowledge of energy systems. Now the bad news (which you already know) if you compare the gas in with the fuel out, you may be disappointed, SO your solar and wind ideas are AWESOME and I hope you get to that point. You also may consider using LOW grade heat from solar or wind to reduce the plastics to an easier to handle form like "Melted ingots" or Ground to a gravel consistency for conveyor feed into a continuous process. Don't forget that while you want to remove use of propane; you also can use it to "TOP OFF" the energy collected from solar and wind. Hardware store resources will take you far, you are truly in a great position to succeed in scientific experimentation! ! ! To measure energy in and energy out can be done by Yuky math or by simply using your produced oil to produce more oil. this will show you Exactly how much energy input is needed for x amount of output. You just need to add a waste oil burner setup to take over for the propane. also - insulate this operation as much as possible and pre-heat your combustion air (at least a little bit) but be careful the extra hot flame burns much higher (longer- in height) than a cold feed air flame making it put out soot when flame contacts metal.
I hope this is the future. Makes me wonder about our government. Instead of our government battles over drilling for more oil, why are we not building huge refineries like this to turn the over-abundance of plastic waste back into oil. You definitely deserve an A on your project, and I hope that maybe you will even take this to Washington one day.
OnGodspath obviously it's not profitable enough to be implemented large scale. this technology has existed since the first oil plastics nothing new. and his process results in a crude oil with lots of contamination I would not burn that
Pyrolysis results in essentially crude oil, the plastic feed-stock itself is worth more than crude oil if you have it at scale. In small quantities and mixed with other garbage its next to useless.
I didn't read all of the comments so this may have been covered before. You can improve the system be using a better cooling loop and extract the gases that will not condense and then feed them to the boiler. This will reduce your propane usage (or whatever fuel) while keeping the gases out of the atmosphere.
Royce Jones Hello sir, i know this sounds random but when you suggest a better cooling loop !! what do you exactly mean and how is this achievable ! and how would you feed the gas to the boiler again i am thinking in recreating this project myself! and i thought of picking your mind thanx in advanced
You would use a condenser to cool the gas to liquid but not all of the gases will be condensable. Use those gasses for the boiler. They should have enough pressure to move to the flame holded.
I was thinking a resistance coil attached to solar within a double walled container with a pressure sealed lid would be most efficient on input vs return. After seeing this video I'm going to make one Stay tuned
@@shermrock345 burning the plastic off the fumes. Classic. But, the fumes are the most valuable part. You gotta harvest/sell them. Hydrogen as fire. That's not just any gas it's Jet Fuel.
@@shermrock345 Or you can harvest the gas and sell it, too. And if you power the thermal depolymerization with solar heat (with mirrors), you can sell even more of the produce, leading to a lower overall price, which would mean people will be more likely to want to invest in it. And the pumps for pressurizing can be powered by sunlight, too, if you have a big enough stirling engine.
also... thinking about the propane being used to produce a relatively low volume of oil. the most efficient way i can think to do that would be a large frennel lens on an aluminum heatsync at the botyom there with a sooty coating to absorb the light better.
Nice work. How are you getting the oxygen out of the system? What kind of temperatures are you running at? If you're interested in converting the system to solar in some way I might be able to offer some input.
Home refining is big in parts of southeast Asia and Indonesia. It's purely a matter of economics. Propane is cheap and waste plastic is plentiful to the point of being a renewable resource. Gasoline, however, is very expensive and heavily taxed. So much so that it is a black market item. In Cambodia I saw people selling home-made and/or smuggled gas in 1-liter glass soda bottles by the roadside like lemonade stands. Even the cops were buying it. Such is the true value of gasoline.
Good work! What about the melted plastic in the bottom of the reactor (barrel)? Does all of it condense into oil? If not how do you clean out your barrel? How much is remaining and what do you do with it? Regards
Probably, but I think he's going for a way of recycling the random plastic. He does mention wanting to change it to electric outlet, solar, or wind powered, which would make it much more environmentally friendly and cost effective.
Depends on how well the kiln is insulated. If you minimize the waste of heat and utilize what waste you can't prevent you are in the green. Plastic does burn after all so it can be considered a fuel and therefore it possible to get net profit of energy from it.
Great video. Basically this is heating plastic waste in a non-oxygen environment. I am thinking about making one using an old 20L pressure cooker I have. However do u know when to stop heating? Is it after you stop seeing oil coming out of the pipe?
My guess is that there is a pretty big net loss in the cost of gas to break the plastic down. However, since plastic does not decompose ever, this is a good solution to help cut down on plastic waste. Like he said, he would like to hook it up to a renewable energy source to break it down eventually. Great stuff.
Since the plastic is in an oxygen free environment and along with the water chamber attachment, it will completely boil into a gaseous form without burning or sticking to the bottom, and then those gases re solidify once they travel the pipe, leaving only the petroleum oil left!
No, Blake. There are two problems, polymers that will not be broken by the heat from his set up, which is a lot of them, and inorganics. Bunch of titanium dioxide in end use plastics along with other materials. It's a fantastic high school science project, but it's a horrible idea in practice.
Keep it up dude! Loving the work, would like to do this for my community as well. Would be beneficial to the community if you put together say a checklist to average the cost and time to set up this process, for the mases
heyy dude!! so this like something really awesome!! keep up the good work. I had some questions though, what would you substitute your high pressure propane tank with? Coz you won't be able to get as much heat and pressure with solar or wind energy without being cost effective? Plus burning fuel like compressed natural gas or liquified petroleum gas would not make sense coz you would be burning fuel to create one. So well im just asking u if there's a way to cut its recurring cost so like then i could finally put it to practical use.
Unfortunately this setup was only used for about 4 runs and this video is of the beginning of my first run. If you are still interested you can leave me your email and I will try my best to give a detailed list with instructions as well as improvements.
Grate job once i saw this i made one myself but with 2 gallon drums instead and a bigger container. it works well not to mention i mad a oil refinery for some gas that works kinda well.
You'll find there's actually even more volatiles escaping off the top of your cooling tank. Mostly Hydrogen gas. If you collect that you can pipe it back into the burner for heating the tank to replace some of the propane and make it much more efficient. Also, if you cool the gasses in increments you can split the oil out by weight and separate the gear oil from the gasoline, etc for a much more usable product.
Hi, Have you actually used this fuel in any application like replacing diesel in your car or generator etc. Does is affect engines in wrong way? Have you tried?
well done dude,nice system.may I add that you'll need to put some heavyer plate on the bottom of the drum so it doesn't burn through in time,she's quite a bomb you got there,you may have done this already.But nice job,keep going :)
The lighter gases you are venting to the atmosphere are also flammable. If you redesign your system, you could use that gas to supplement the propane heat.
that's badass dude. I read that the plastic boiling chamber has to be free of oxygen, otherwise the plastic ignites and combusts. have you had to do anything about this?
I want to copy you. Will use scrap wood and grass clippings for heat and run the production pipe through the water but keep it separated from the water to limit sludge buildup! Excellent first success!
Solar or wind will never give enough energy to get hot enough. At least economically speaking it will be cheaper to just buy oil. At some point with all the effort you gotta ask yourself how much am I worth and how much time does it take me to make this?
@@jayrepko7118 If he uses a large enough magnifying glass he can get the necessary heat especially with all the sun in Texas. He can also help himself by burning the gasses released from the plastic and finding a way to pressurize the system.
Could a solar grill or similar technology replace the propane? I also wonder what the ratio of input and output energy is in a simple setup with propane.
You can use the gas you eject to power the thermal depolymerization. That's what the "Thermal Depolymerization" video from freestylejunki32 says they're doing at some such factories.
Ok. So you put a kilogram of plastic inside the chamber and vaporise it by heating it. What's the energetic balance? Is it sufficient or you use more energy with propane gas than eventually you get with oil you produce? That's the smart way to get rid of plastics BUT when you put your 1000 g of plastic - how much waste that you cannot process any longer you end up with? What's the ratio of usable and useless when it comes to 100% mass of polymers you use? Does it leave some waste that cannot be processed? If yes, how much?
Is there not some kind of slag at the bottom of the main tank, you melt so much of it and then what does it all go up the tube, or as I have asked there is some kind of left over slag....?
I found this very interesting and if you can I would love to know more about this if you can send me a detailed description on the parts and steps on how to do this I would appreciate it a lot also I want to know if the oil u were able to get out of the plastic can be refined into gasoline
All oil made here can be further refined into various fuels like kerosene gasoline or diesel, but it takes a lot of temperature control. Each one is gasified at a specific temperature so heating at that specific degree and then another and another you could potentially get several different fuels depending on what plastics you used
I see what people are saying about using more energy than what is produced but if the tech works I am confident some one will create a more economical way of heating the plastics
solar focal point, granted only works when there is plenty of sun but hey its 90% free to do so (you still have to build the collector and oil reactor) look up focal beams
The 55 gallon drum that I used came with threaded ports like large nut and bolt. From that port I screwed in 2 reducers to make a perfect fitting from the threaded opening to my condenser. Thanks for your interest
Do you get enough oil from the plastic to use it to melt the plastic? If the system requires more energy than it puts out, it's a net loss and just a waste. But that should make it a lot easier for you to get the city (or any government) backing it lol!
whats the latest on this whole technology... has someone come up with a viable solution? i am starting a project in southern myanmar and would like to build a prototype which can be set up in the different villages... the plastic rubbish is a huge problem there and if this could be done everyone would collect the plastic from the village and beaches...
Hi there.This is a great project. May I give you a suggestion ? I can clearly see, perhaps I did not look it carefully, that you are collecting only one product of this thermal degradation. Only the volatiles are condensing when the mixture gets in contact with the water. The remaining is just going out into the atmosphere. The non-volatile gas is also flammable. I mean, the plant can be more efficient if by the end of the product you have chars, oil and gases. If you modify it, ensirsing safety of course, you can burn the gas directly on the flare. But the way you did it is fine and I am sure you will get an +A. Greetings from Brazil
+BIGMUSCLE um no....melting and burning are two separate things. one is a state change and the other is a chemical change. If it's burning you are also burning the chemicals that you are trying to collect as fuel and changing it to something else. When you melt it you are changing it's phase from solid to liquid and then to vapor which is not the same as burning. It's like heating ice on the stove you heat it and it goes from solid to liquid to vapor but it's still water in all of those states it doesn't change to carbon which is what happens when you burn plastic.
Jerome Truitt applying heat to it melts it, wether directly or indirectly. That's the point. You also don't need a vacuum to melt plastic, all it needs is heat.
***** adding heat to plastic with oxygen present will cause it to burn. It takes more than just melting point temperature to get the plastic to vaporize, bringing the plastic to the vapor point in the presence of oxygen will make it burn rather than vaporize that's why you need a vacuum
Jerome Truitt It's evident that you're wrong base on the fact that he was able to melt the plastics without them "burning." You can easily test this by experimenting. Put a clean pot on a stove, let it heat up, then start adding plastics into it. Whatever results you get will be the answer to your question. Plastics aren't necessarily super combustible, so most plastic materials would melt when exposed to gradual and indirect heating source. which this basically how this device works, they only combustion (catch on fire) when exposed to a direct and high intensity heat source. This types of devices also wouldn't work in a vacuum since the plastic gases needs to exist the heater and collect into the cooled water and convert back into liquid. For more information about plastics, see: www.quora.com/How-easily-combustible-are-each-of-the-major-plastic-polymers-e-g-polyethylene-polypropylene-polycarbonate-polystyrene.
Hi there, Me, and a couple of my friends, have this science project So, we are planning to turn plastic to oil and then produce methanol and ammonia with that Well, after seeing this, I just wanted some tips upon how exactly you built the set-up And, what temperature of water is preferable/ plastics that shouldn't be used/ etc Would really appreciate it if you could answer a few queries that i have in this context. Thanks ^_^
good technique. thinking long term and about the most efficient way to recycle the plastic may be using it in building/insulation materials and that process would have the lowest carbon output i could think of too... at least as low as using a pair of scissors.
thank you so much sir for explaining what that water is for i've been wondering what that water jug is for i am also making a Pyrolysis reactor and i will link your video in my project.
And thermodynamics rears it’s ugly head again. There are loses in every system, no matter how efficient we try to create the system, we can never get more energy out than we put in. What you are describing is a perpetual motion machine which is simply not possible. The amount of energy needed to create pyrolysis oil is always going to exceed the amount of energy you can extract from the pyrolysis oil. Not to mention this stuff is just as noxious if not more than petroleum so be careful messing with it. It is a rather potent carcinogen. Lots of dangers involved for the home chemist. I can certainly see it’s applications but definitely something you will want to do with the proper safety gear and knowledge.
just burn the plastics themselves and there you have your energy, with distilling the melted plastic soup you gain nothing besides waisting propane, right?
the problem is that you cant run a combustion motor on that, the equation is just if you can make it in some way where you can get more energy out of it than you use to power the setup.
yeah but technically your still wasting a lot of energy to the environment during heating the plastics; because you have to think of the energy bound in the bottles and shit, your also have to account for them in the balance; and a combustion engine's efficiency is quite low so you will loose some there as well; maybe it's better to recycle those plastics and make new bottles out of them and use the crude you'd otherwise use für new bottles to make gas; anyway the experiment looks like a lot of fun, and its cool that its actually working, keep experimenting!
and burning the plastics would also burn impurities, which are better disposed, and the oil is more useful as autofuel rather than just burning for heat.
Dylan Tuohy burn it for one thing to create more oil from plastic. Then it can be used for everything oil is used for: making gasoline, diesel, kerosine, petroleum jelly, etc.
I am very curious, if there are other materials than plastic in the heating tank for pyrolysis such as iron, copper, aluminium etc, will that somehow affect the process and can u try that on your oil refinery? Great work btw keep it up, hope you will make a factory for this one day :)
I think if you used a wood gasifier instead of propane to run your plastic gasifier you could cut your costs by maybe 70 %. Research FEMA gasifier, The plans are free. Good luck on your plastic to oil recycling project!
+existentialtexas Have you updated your design yet? I tried something similar after watching your video, but the piping was too short to allow the air to completely condense. As a result, most of the vapor was still hot when it came out of the pipe and it escaped into the air. I'm working on a design with a coiled copper flex tube. If you upgrade yours or have any new findings, please post! I enjoyed this! :)
Hello @existentialtexas. I would appreciate if u can communicate with about this process.Av already begun doing it for a school project and would like to know how the reactor is built and how it looks inside? Please reply as soon as u get this.
This is cool. I am getting ready to build a smaller version with some high school seniors here in the Philippines. I was thinking about using two condensers with spigots to trap the first and second run (you could do three for a clean third run) and capturing the cooled end gas to help fuel the retort or burn chamber. Nice video!
Thankyou to everybody for your comments and interest. My relocation had made it difficult for me to continue on this project but I am back home and would like to begin working on an improved (cleaner more efficient) version sometime this summer. To everybody with serious inquiries and interest in wanting to build your own, I'm sorry I am barely getting back to this but will try to reply to everybody in a timely manner from now on. Thank you again to all of you for your patience and to everybody for keeping the conversation going while I was away
existentialtexas food for thought if you were to pressurize your 55 gallon drum the temperature needed to convert the plastic to a gaseous state would be reduced.
+curious mind Actually, if you reduced the size of the container holding the plastic, you would get a faster burn and hence more pressure. It would also be easier to remove the "char" (the residue, mostly carbon) from the bottom. Welcome back and good luck! BTW, did yo get an "A" on your project?
Keep going, don't stop, America needs young brilliant minds like yours. A future in clean energy is a must, and we do need to get rid of the plastics we already have , you are doing it, keep up the good work. Sharing this to FB, along with the guy from China who is also doing this. Thank you.
existentialtexas plz I am interested on learning ur project
eileen susa I think world need him too as plastic is globel problem.
Gasification is awesome and all the air pollution is collected, its not incineration. This is so simple and it works. Wood to syngas, Tires to crude oil. Your the guy that will build a ship to clean the oceans of plastic and run it off gasification of the Plastic. Keep up the good work.
I notice you aren't collecting or using the syngas that is being produced. That can power gasoline engines to generate electricity or burn to run your system. Syngas is mostly hydrogen so it burns very clean and the exhaust is water.
By the way, you can process that oil again and make more syngas.
Mark Proffitt Exactly, without using the Syngas the Pyrolysis process is inefficient.
The Dude Guy It is produced along with a liquid, commercial Pyrolysis machines only use an external heat at the start. I’ve seen a UA-cam vid of a commercial Pyrolysis machine that continuously feeds plastic in so just keeps producing constant supply of low Carbon fuel and an inert Carbon dry residue that is used in tiles, bricks etc.
@@Kiyarose3999 There's a backyard mechanic in New Zealand who's using part of the resulting pyrolysis to feed the combustion ua-cam.com/video/cTtAElSO7zE/v-deo.html
You are brilliant, love your innovation , keep it up, America needs brilliant minds like your's. Thank you .
my family owns a scrap yard in Brownfield, Tx and i think this is amazing
i have been thinking a lot lately about how to do something like this. i want to go ahead and try this out as my next project but eventually i hope to be able to convert plastic to liquid form and mode it into new recycled plastic material. this is very inspiring thank you so much for sharing
GREAT job! It is so great that you are doing this. You will learn so much and in the future this will be one of the building blocks that support your overall, well diversified, knowledge of energy systems. Now the bad news (which you already know) if you compare the gas in with the fuel out, you may be disappointed, SO your solar and wind ideas are AWESOME and I hope you get to that point. You also may consider using LOW grade heat from solar or wind to reduce the plastics to an easier to handle form like "Melted ingots" or Ground to a gravel consistency for conveyor feed into a continuous process. Don't forget that while you want to remove use of propane; you also can use it to "TOP OFF" the energy collected from solar and wind. Hardware store resources will take you far, you are truly in a great position to succeed in scientific experimentation! ! !
To measure energy in and energy out can be done by Yuky math or by simply using your produced oil to produce more oil. this will show you Exactly how much energy input is needed for x amount of output. You just need to add a waste oil burner setup to take over for the propane.
also - insulate this operation as much as possible and pre-heat your combustion air (at least a little bit) but be careful the extra hot flame burns much higher (longer- in height) than a cold feed air flame making it put out soot when flame contacts metal.
I hope this is the future. Makes me wonder about our government.
Instead of our government battles over drilling for more oil, why are we not building huge refineries like this to turn the over-abundance of plastic waste back into oil.
You definitely deserve an A on your project, and I hope that maybe you will even take this to Washington one day.
OnGodspath obviously it's not profitable enough to be implemented large scale. this technology has existed since the first oil plastics nothing new. and his process results in a crude oil with lots of contamination I would not burn that
Pyrolysis results in essentially crude oil, the plastic feed-stock itself is worth more than crude oil if you have it at scale. In small quantities and mixed with other garbage its next to useless.
@@aleksandersuur9475 Pyrolysis of plastics can yield diesel, kerosene, and gasoline, see ua-cam.com/video/Vhvogn49riI/v-deo.html
Good for you man! That is using your brain in a totally constructive way. What a help to the environment. You Rock Buddy!!!
Have you ever measured the octane content?
Hey! Way to BE a good, resourceful and inquisitive scientist and environmental steward! Good luck in all your future endeavors!
I didn't read all of the comments so this may have been covered before. You can improve the system be using a better cooling loop and extract the gases that will not condense and then feed them to the boiler. This will reduce your propane usage (or whatever fuel) while keeping the gases out of the atmosphere.
Royce Jones Hello sir,
i know this sounds random
but when you suggest a better cooling loop !! what do you exactly mean and how is this achievable !
and how would you feed the gas to the boiler again
i am thinking in recreating this project myself! and i thought of picking your mind
thanx in advanced
You would use a condenser to cool the gas to liquid but not all of the gases will be condensable. Use those gasses for the boiler. They should have enough pressure to move to the flame holded.
Thank you so much sir for your fast response
I will look closely more into it
again i am really grateful for your kind respond
rahaf hussein Anytime, do a little research on gasifiers, wood, coal, etc., they all work basically the same.
u are fond of the word "apparently" aren't you?
how much fossle fuels needed to burn to make 1 gal or oil. Use a Fresnel lens instead of gas
Can the fresnel hold the pressure?
I was thinking a resistance coil attached to solar within a double walled container with a pressure sealed lid would be most efficient on input vs return.
After seeing this video I'm going to make one
Stay tuned
You know you can use the gas off of that to powe that. A by product is propane.
@@shermrock345 burning the plastic off the fumes. Classic. But, the fumes are the most valuable part. You gotta harvest/sell them. Hydrogen as fire. That's not just any gas it's Jet Fuel.
@@shermrock345 Or you can harvest the gas and sell it, too. And if you power the thermal depolymerization with solar heat (with mirrors), you can sell even more of the produce, leading to a lower overall price, which would mean people will be more likely to want to invest in it. And the pumps for pressurizing can be powered by sunlight, too, if you have a big enough stirling engine.
This is awesome man. Keep up the amazing work!!!!!
also... thinking about the propane being used to produce a relatively low volume of oil. the most efficient way i can think to do that would be a large frennel lens on an aluminum heatsync at the botyom there with a sooty coating to absorb the light better.
Nice work.
How are you getting the oxygen out of the system? What kind of temperatures are you running at?
If you're interested in converting the system to solar in some way I might be able to offer some input.
hi my friend, i liked your machine... very good very good...
Home refining is big in parts of southeast Asia and Indonesia. It's purely a matter of economics. Propane is cheap and waste plastic is plentiful to the point of being a renewable resource. Gasoline, however, is very expensive and heavily taxed. So much so that it is a black market item. In Cambodia I saw people selling home-made and/or smuggled gas in 1-liter glass soda bottles by the roadside like lemonade stands. Even the cops were buying it. Such is the true value of gasoline.
Why is propane so cheap, isn't it a by product of crude oil?
great stuff, any idea what ratio oil will you get to plastic
Nice work. Look at rocket stove to replace propane...
I wonder if this is safe to operate a home and legal in your state.
Good work!
What about the melted plastic in the bottom of the reactor (barrel)? Does all of it condense into oil? If not how do you clean out your barrel? How much is remaining and what do you do with it?
Regards
Wouldn't it take more energy to fire the torch than what you're getting from the oil?
Probably, but I think he's going for a way of recycling the random plastic. He does mention wanting to change it to electric outlet, solar, or wind powered, which would make it much more environmentally friendly and cost effective.
Depends on how well the kiln is insulated. If you minimize the waste of heat and utilize what waste you can't prevent you are in the green. Plastic does burn after all so it can be considered a fuel and therefore it possible to get net profit of energy from it.
Great project. A bit of refining and you will have a better result. The bubling gas, are you catching that or is it escaping?
Great video. Basically this is heating plastic waste in a non-oxygen environment. I am thinking about making one using an old 20L pressure cooker I have. However do u know when to stop heating? Is it after you stop seeing oil coming out of the pipe?
I wonder if an old hot water system could be used to build an electric version to power off solar?
how it was made...pls suggest us the method of making please
What you are gona do with the remaining burned waste inside the container?
Ehmm how much gas u use for producing a liter of diesel ... ??
My guess is that there is a pretty big net loss in the cost of gas to break the plastic down. However, since plastic does not decompose ever, this is a good solution to help cut down on plastic waste. Like he said, he would like to hook it up to a renewable energy source to break it down eventually. Great stuff.
Does the cost of the fuel to run the device cost more than the product it produces?
where do you put the plastic into the drum ?
How far into the barrel does the pipe go
Nice! I'd go with Royce Jones: using the gas as energy for heating the waste plastic. Keep up the cool work man u are part of the green dream :)
Wow, this is cool!! You will be a rich man if you start your own refining plant!! GO FOR IT!! #entrepreneur in the making!!!
What happens to the waste in the drum? Inspiring work, you got me thinking man. Great Job!
Since the plastic is in an oxygen free environment and along with the water chamber attachment, it will completely boil into a gaseous form without burning or sticking to the bottom, and then those gases re solidify once they travel the pipe, leaving only the petroleum oil left!
No, Blake. There are two problems, polymers that will not be broken by the heat from his set up, which is a lot of them, and inorganics. Bunch of titanium dioxide in end use plastics along with other materials.
It's a fantastic high school science project, but it's a horrible idea in practice.
Good work. Could you please answer the other posts below? Thanks
What do you plan to do with the gasses that you are waisting right now?
Those gasses are wery flammable and they are greanhouse gases...
Keep it up dude! Loving the work, would like to do this for my community as well. Would be beneficial to the community if you put together say a checklist to average the cost and time to set up this process, for the mases
Whats the minimum temp you need to get for this process?
4 Kop Studio 3D Rendering yes I need to know this
+4 Kop Studio Melting point of plastic
heyy dude!! so this like something really awesome!! keep up the good work. I had some questions though, what would you substitute your high pressure propane tank with? Coz you won't be able to get as much heat and pressure with solar or wind energy without being cost effective? Plus burning fuel like compressed natural gas or liquified petroleum gas would not make sense coz you would be burning fuel to create one. So well im just asking u if there's a way to cut its recurring cost so like then i could finally put it to practical use.
Brilliant! Good for you, man!
Next step is to post a video of the step by step process of the build!
Unfortunately this setup was only used for about 4 runs and this video is of the beginning of my first run. If you are still interested you can leave me your email and I will try my best to give a detailed list with instructions as well as improvements.
existentialtexas solartarded@gmail.com... Thanks!
existentialtexas yaa sure plz send thrue watsapp I am alii from Kenya +254726570630 big up for the great job
Pls what will u do with the waste inside the tank? After getting the gas.
Go for it! Good job! What you are doing is great. I hope it takes you far. Thanks for sharing.
What are the materials or equipment you used for that?
Grate job once i saw this i made one myself but with 2 gallon drums instead and a bigger container. it works well not to mention i mad a oil refinery for some gas that works kinda well.
Is there a vacuum created in the main tank? because a presence of oxygen would burn the plastic
How were you able to keep the lid sealed so that the fumes wouldn't escape?
2 years ago rip..
I have this problem... kinda lol
The steam from the melted plastic escapes... fucking hell
You'll find there's actually even more volatiles escaping off the top of your cooling tank. Mostly Hydrogen gas. If you collect that you can pipe it back into the burner for heating the tank to replace some of the propane and make it much more efficient.
Also, if you cool the gasses in increments you can split the oil out by weight and separate the gear oil from the gasoline, etc for a much more usable product.
How much oil did you get from that drum?
Hi, Have you actually used this fuel in any application like replacing diesel in your car or generator etc. Does is affect engines in wrong way? Have you tried?
how is your project doing?
well done dude,nice system.may I add that you'll need to put some heavyer plate on the bottom of the drum so it doesn't burn through in time,she's quite a bomb you got there,you may have done this already.But nice job,keep going :)
1:10 massive glitch in the matrix
You are amazing! A technology leader for the future.
You still working on this sir? any update bay chance? Ill bounce some Idea's with you.
Could u burn the oil to heat the tank? Like for places that are cold it free energy in a sense cos the heat from the burner can heat a house.
The lighter gases you are venting to the atmosphere are also flammable. If you redesign your system, you could use that gas to supplement the propane heat.
that's badass dude. I read that the plastic boiling chamber has to be free of oxygen, otherwise the plastic ignites and combusts. have you had to do anything about this?
Nice work! Have you remade this machine at all? I am thinking about building one myself.
I want to copy you. Will use scrap wood and grass clippings for heat and run the production pipe through the water but keep it separated from the water to limit sludge buildup! Excellent first success!
Don't you burn more fuel then the amount of oil you extract making it a bigger waste rather then just recycling?
Comment me if I'm wrong.
Jay Repko I think that's why he want to try Solar or wind
Solar or wind will never give enough energy to get hot enough. At least economically speaking it will be cheaper to just buy oil. At some point with all the effort you gotta ask yourself how much am I worth and how much time does it take me to make this?
Jay Repko bullshit! Absolutely bullshit!
@@jayrepko7118 If he uses a large enough magnifying glass he can get the necessary heat especially with all the sun in Texas. He can also help himself by burning the gasses released from the plastic and finding a way to pressurize the system.
So u use gas to create gas
How many litres for day can you produce?
DOES IT CREATE A SMELL OR BURNING PLASTIC??
Could a solar grill or similar technology replace the propane?
I also wonder what the ratio of input and output energy is in a simple setup with propane.
Hi, one question the pressure of the combustion chamber, is equal to the cooling chamber?
You can use the gas you eject to power the thermal depolymerization. That's what the "Thermal Depolymerization" video from
freestylejunki32 says they're doing at some such factories.
Ok. So you put a kilogram of plastic inside the chamber and vaporise it by heating it. What's the energetic balance? Is it sufficient or you use more energy with propane gas than eventually you get with oil you produce? That's the smart way to get rid of plastics BUT when you put your 1000 g of plastic - how much waste that you cannot process any longer you end up with? What's the ratio of usable and useless when it comes to 100% mass of polymers you use? Does it leave some waste that cannot be processed? If yes, how much?
What are you doing with the rest not melted plastic ?
I sort of wondered that too...
What is left in the oil drum after you're done, and how hard is it to remove it?
Is there not some kind of slag at the bottom of the main tank, you melt so much of it and then what does it all go up the tube, or as I have asked there is some kind of left over slag....?
Tim D Stevens yeah seems like after a while you would probably have to make an entirely new setup because this thing looks a bit difficult to clean
Very cool! Gave me a ton of ideas for a similar project, thanks kid!
Can it be made it in home? whats the process?
and whats the conversion ratio from plastic to oil?
Hrishikesh Kodmur do more research it's out there and definitely viable.
what is the cost of the fuel input vs. profit output?
On that scale it is definetly not a profitable process, but it is something that would be cool to see.
I found this very interesting and if you can I would love to know more about this if you can send me a detailed description on the parts and steps on how to do this I would appreciate it a lot also I want to know if the oil u were able to get out of the plastic can be refined into gasoline
I'm sure it's all just as simple as it looks. A large container to melt and vaporize the plastic and one to condense it.
All oil made here can be further refined into various fuels like kerosene gasoline or diesel, but it takes a lot of temperature control. Each one is gasified at a specific temperature so heating at that specific degree and then another and another you could potentially get several different fuels depending on what plastics you used
I see what people are saying about using more energy than what is produced but if the tech works I am confident some one will create a more economical way of heating the plastics
solar focal point, granted only works when there is plenty of sun but hey its 90% free to do so (you still have to build the collector and oil reactor) look up focal beams
how do you make you burning drum air-tight?
The 55 gallon drum that I used came with threaded ports like large nut and bolt. From that port I screwed in 2 reducers to make a perfect fitting from the threaded opening to my condenser. Thanks for your interest
So can I use the oil produced to heat my house with an oil furnace
Do you get enough oil from the plastic to use it to melt the plastic? If the system requires more energy than it puts out, it's a net loss and just a waste. But that should make it a lot easier for you to get the city (or any government) backing it lol!
so how much gass do you burn to get that fuel???
whats the latest on this whole technology... has someone come up with a viable solution? i am starting a project in southern myanmar and would like to build a prototype which can be set up in the different villages... the plastic rubbish is a huge problem there and if this could be done everyone would collect the plastic from the village and beaches...
Great job. Convert it to green energy and I think you have a winner.
Hi there.This is a great project. May I give you a suggestion ? I can clearly see, perhaps I did not look it carefully, that you are collecting only one product of this thermal degradation. Only the volatiles are condensing when the mixture gets in contact with the water. The remaining is just going out into the atmosphere. The non-volatile gas is also flammable. I mean, the plant can be more efficient if by the end of the product you have chars, oil and gases. If you modify it, ensirsing safety of course, you can burn the gas directly on the flare. But the way you did it is fine and I am sure you will get an +A. Greetings from Brazil
You didn't need a vacuum to melt the plastic without it burning?
+Jerome Truitt It melts while it burns.
+BIGMUSCLE um no....melting and burning are two separate things. one is a state change and the other is a chemical change. If it's burning you are also burning the chemicals that you are trying to collect as fuel and changing it to something else. When you melt it you are changing it's phase from solid to liquid and then to vapor which is not the same as burning. It's like heating ice on the stove you heat it and it goes from solid to liquid to vapor but it's still water in all of those states it doesn't change to carbon which is what happens when you burn plastic.
Jerome Truitt applying heat to it melts it, wether directly or indirectly. That's the point. You also don't need a vacuum to melt plastic, all it needs is heat.
***** adding heat to plastic with oxygen present will cause it to burn. It takes more than just melting point temperature to get the plastic to vaporize, bringing the plastic to the vapor point in the presence of oxygen will make it burn rather than vaporize that's why you need a vacuum
Jerome Truitt It's evident that you're wrong base on the fact that he was able to melt the plastics without them "burning."
You can easily test this by experimenting. Put a clean pot on a stove, let it heat up, then start adding plastics into it. Whatever results you get will be the answer to your question.
Plastics aren't necessarily super combustible, so most plastic materials would melt when exposed to gradual and indirect heating source. which this basically how this device works, they only combustion (catch on fire) when exposed to a direct and high intensity heat source.
This types of devices also wouldn't work in a vacuum since the plastic gases needs to exist the heater and collect into the cooled water and convert back into liquid.
For more information about plastics, see: www.quora.com/How-easily-combustible-are-each-of-the-major-plastic-polymers-e-g-polyethylene-polypropylene-polycarbonate-polystyrene.
Hi there,
Me, and a couple of my friends, have this science project
So, we are planning to turn plastic to oil and then produce methanol and ammonia with that
Well, after seeing this, I just wanted some tips upon how exactly you built the set-up
And, what temperature of water is preferable/ plastics that shouldn't be used/ etc
Would really appreciate it if you could answer a few queries that i have in this context.
Thanks ^_^
How did it go
The next rockefeller right there
good technique. thinking long term and about the most efficient way to recycle the plastic may be using it in building/insulation materials and that process would have the lowest carbon output i could think of too... at least as low as using a pair of scissors.
thank you so much sir for explaining what that water is for i've been wondering what that water jug is for i am also making a Pyrolysis reactor and i will link your video in my project.
what kind of oil are plastic, I utilece packs of Coke, you help please
Heat can be produced from the fuel you are creating thus using no outside energy.
And thermodynamics rears it’s ugly head again.
There are loses in every system, no matter how efficient we try to create the system, we can never get more energy out than we put in.
What you are describing is a perpetual motion machine which is simply not possible.
The amount of energy needed to create pyrolysis oil is always going to exceed the amount of energy you can extract from the pyrolysis oil.
Not to mention this stuff is just as noxious if not more than petroleum so be careful messing with it. It is a rather potent carcinogen. Lots of dangers involved for the home chemist. I can certainly see it’s applications but definitely something you will want to do with the proper safety gear and knowledge.
is styrofoam convertible to oil ?
Better still....take a tiny amount of bad/old gasoline....add a mountain of styrofoam...the paste you create is an epoxy.
just burn the plastics themselves and there you have your energy, with distilling the melted plastic soup you gain nothing besides waisting propane, right?
the problem is that you cant run a combustion motor on that, the equation is just if you can make it in some way where you can get more energy out of it than you use to power the setup.
yeah but technically your still wasting a lot of energy to the environment during heating the plastics; because you have to think of the energy bound in the bottles and shit, your also have to account for them in the balance; and a combustion engine's efficiency is quite low so you will loose some there as well; maybe it's better to recycle those plastics and make new bottles out of them and use the crude you'd otherwise use für new bottles to make gas; anyway the experiment looks like a lot of fun, and its cool that its actually working, keep experimenting!
and burning the plastics would also burn impurities, which are better disposed, and the oil is more useful as autofuel rather than just burning for heat.
Dude, keep up the great work!
What do you do with that oil?
Dylan Tuohy burn it for one thing to create more oil from plastic. Then it can be used for everything oil is used for: making gasoline, diesel, kerosine, petroleum jelly, etc.
I am very curious, if there are other materials than plastic in the heating tank for pyrolysis such as iron, copper, aluminium etc, will that somehow affect the process and can u try that on your oil refinery? Great work btw keep it up, hope you will make a factory for this one day :)
You're a smart dude bro
Instead why don't you install distillation process and collect both oil and gas?
Cassandra oil is doing this large scale. Going to be huge!
I think if you used a wood gasifier instead of propane to run your plastic gasifier you could cut your costs by maybe 70 %. Research FEMA gasifier, The plans are free. Good luck on your plastic to oil recycling project!
Where are the plans thanks
Look up wood gas on youtube and just follow the links and you will find the people building the gasifiers. I hope this helps.
@@idealistfromontario3905 ua-cam.com/video/a6e3CprVTi8/v-deo.html
+existentialtexas Have you updated your design yet? I tried something similar after watching your video, but the piping was too short to allow the air to completely condense. As a result, most of the vapor was still hot when it came out of the pipe and it escaped into the air. I'm working on a design with a coiled copper flex tube. If you upgrade yours or have any new findings, please post! I enjoyed this! :)
Hello @existentialtexas.
I would appreciate if u can communicate with about this process.Av already begun doing it for a school project and would like to know how the reactor is built and how it looks inside?
Please reply as soon as u get this.
Sorry that it's so late but if you are still interested you can leave me your email and I'd be happy to help out in any way I can
paulchege1992@gmail.com
Email me soon