Conversion of Plastic Waste into Useful Fuel

Abstract

Pyrolysis is the thermal decomposition of materials at elevated temperature in an inert atmosphere. Pyrolsis of plastic waste had become an important method in producing plastic waste oil as a new supply of energy and an alternative fuel system. The benefit from this process is: Treatment of many plastic waste, consequently clean environment and obtaining fuel oil for plastic waste which is a useful final product. In this work decided to design a simple reactor made from local instruments and easy to move from place to another. The reactor design was studied by using different material and direction. Five types of reactor with different accessories in two directions vertical and horizontal. The vertical reactor was better than the horizontal one in producing oil. Plastic waste such as HDPE, LDPE, PP or mixture of these with different percentages were used in converting them to oil. Collected pyrolsis products using different reactor set up were analyzed and tested using GCMS, density, viscosity @ 40 0c, flash point, furan and dioxin, water content, calorific value and other test done by Sudan University of Science and Technology, University of Medical Science, Petroleum Laboratories Research and Studies (PLRS) in Sudan, Agricultural Research Center in Egypt and Egyptian Petroleum Research Institute (EPRI). Then the final product was used for fueling TukTuk and the performance was found to be good compared with traditional fuel and even better than traditional fuel for TUKTUK as we noticed that there a difference of 2 Km when using 600 ml. Adding small amount of domestic oil to PP waste oil and reused again in TukTuk gives excellent result. As increased the distance travelled by one compared to PP oil alone. Also the oil from mixed plastic used in cresset and lighting for 9 hours. All tests results shows good results and confirm that the produced oil from HDPE, LDPE and PP alone is compared to gasoline specifications. Also the produced oil from mixture (HDPE+LDPE+PP) is compared to diesel specifications.