Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Cheap, small scale fuel production systems finally up and running?

497 - 6-5-2012 at 02:24

If you live in Russia, you can already order one up from this website:http://www.potram.ru/en/index.php

Their English can be tough to understand at times, but they still managed to impress the hell out of me! I've always thought what they're doing was possible, but now there is proof. Really exciting stuff!
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That is the amount of municipal waste need to get through reactors Shah to get a liter of light synthetic crude oil. Light crude oil in the composition which contains up to 80% of diesel distillate. It is now generally prefer to bury such waste in landfills rather than recycled. And in fact, 10 kilograms of garbage a day - and an apartment is fully equipped with electricity and heat. To date, a ton of garbage can produce processor technology design bureau of the Shah $ 500 of net income. Imagine making a small city with a population of 200,000 inhabitants, burying 1000 tons of waste daily on their landfills. Residents of this city to throw out 500,000 dollars each day.
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Using molecular technology gap can be any organic substance is transformed into synthetic oil: Wood processing - 16.9% oil (on dry matter yield - 33.8% oil). Processing of raw peat - 6.5% of oil (yield on the dry matter - 46.4% oil). Processing of brown coal - 30.3% oil (yield on the dry matter - 56.6% oil). Processing of coal - 46.4% oil (yield on the dry matter - 57.3% oil). Recycling of used tires - 71.4% of the oil. Recycling of solid waste - 32.1% oil (yield on the dry matter - 49.4% oil). Processing of oil - 87.3% oil. Processing of hard coal - 68.7% of the oil. Processing of lignin - 19.9% ??oil (yield on the dry matter - 53.0% oil). Recycling of carbon residue of pyrolysis of tires - 65.0% oil. Recycling sludge lake - 41.3% oil (yield on the dry matter - 58.5% oil). Recycling of sludge treatment facilities - 17.6% oil (yield on the dry matter - 50.2% oil). And then get out of this diesel oil, this synthetic oil - 75.3% of diesel fuel.
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Mini-refineries "Hummingbird" - a semi-automatic installation of a continuous, pednaznachen for light petroleum products from any of the liquid oily material. The size of the main unit mini-refinery "Hummingbird» 1500x600x1500 mm. The performance of mini-refineries "Hummingbird" from 0.5 to 1.5 tons of light oil per day. Electrical power equipment installed 2.2 kW, voltage 380V (on request you can perform all electrical power from the mains to 220V). The mass of mini-refineries "Hummingbird" - 600 lbs. Thermal heating boiler 100 kW / h. At a mini-refinery "Hummingbird" the main raw material of the heating unit for heat is used raw materials processed and the associated gas produced in the processes of cracking and distillation. In addition, it is possible to use any combustible material (wood, coal, waste, waste oils). Therefore, power consumption of the equipment is minimal. Serves the installation - a man. The quality of light oil produced on the mini-refinery "Colibri" Quality parameters of the final commercial products and the material balance is tied to the original raw materials and the processed depends on its fractional composition, and temperature regimes of the process established by the mini-refinery "Hummingbird." Gasoline - low-octane straight-run gasoline, or AI-80 (GOST) fuel for gasoline engines with spark ignition. Separate distillation can be distinguished in the light high-octane gasoline residue will be naphtha. Before bringing to GOST requires the introduction of additives or compounding of high-octane gasoline. By further distillation and the selection of fractions boiling at certain temperature ranges; up to 100 ° C - diesel grade I, up to 130 ° C - fuel grade II, up to 270 ° C - an ordinary kerosene. Diesel - in line with state standards: GOST 305-82 diesel fuel. Description of the processes of mini-refineries "Hummingbird." Mini-refineries "Hummingbird" contains within itself the possibility to technological processes of processing of liquid hydrocarbons in the cracking mode (temperature of 450 ° C), distillation (temperature of 360 ° C) or in the mode of evaporation (temperature of 160 ° C). For a given design objective was to obtain light products of gasoline and diesel oil in the most minimal size refinery, to ensure reliable operation at the minimum cost of components, ensure the "omnivorous" for raw materials. The cracking process. Cracking (born cracking, splitting) - High-temperature processing of oil and its fractions in order to obtain, as a rule, products of lower molecular weight. Cracking is carried out by heating the crude oil. The process used to produce the basic components of high-octane gasoline, gas oil (bunker oil components, gas turbine and furnace fuel), gasoline fraction, jet and diesel fuels, mineral oils. Cracking occurs with rupture of C-C bonds and the formation of free radicals or carbanions. Along with breaking C-C bonds are dehydrogenation, isomerization, polymerization and condensation of both the intermediate and the starting materials. As a result, the latter two processes are formed so-called. cracking residue (fraction with a boiling point over 350 ° C) and petroleum coke. The process of distillation. Distilling (from Lat. Distillatio - drip drops) (distillation), the separation of liquid mixtures at different composition of the fraction. Based on the difference in the compositions of liquid and vapor generated from it. Carried out by partial evaporation of the liquid and the last. condensation of steam. Distilled fraction (distillate) is enriched in the relatively volatile (low-boiling) components, and neotognannaya fluid (bottoms) - less volatile (high boiling). Purification by distillation of substances based on the fact that the evaporation of a mixture of liquids is usually obtained pairs of different composition - is its enrichment of low-boiling component in the mixture. So many of the compounds can be removed easily boiling impurities, or, conversely, to overtake the main substance, leaving the hard boiling impurities in the distillation apparatus. This explains the widespread use of distillation in the production of pure substances. The process of evaporation. Evaporation - the transition of matter from liquid to gaseous state (steam). Evaporation process is the reverse process of condensation (transition from vapor to liquid. Evaporation (steam generation), the transition from the condensed matter (solid or liquid) phase to the gaseous (vapor) phase transition.


Now to work out a DIY open source design... Anybody interested? Or does this look too hard to DIY?



As far as I can tell, this site is unknown to the English speaking world.

Eventually a solid oxide fuel cell would make a great addition, allowing greater simplicity and better yields of electricity. Tri-generation (heat, fuel, electricity) using waste/biomass/coal could be near in our future. Issues with catalyst poisoning have been at least partially solved: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/suppl/2009/10/01/326.5949....

Foreign oil dependency is such a massive joke! There are thousands of patents spanning decades that show quite clearly that "big oil" has had the knowledge and technology needed to supply us with locally produced energy/fuels at a fraction of current prices (but at a fraction of current profit.) They might soon find out just how unsustainable monopolies really are over the long term.

Pyridinium - 6-5-2012 at 10:48

I'm always interested in things like this - in fact if I had the chance and the resources I'd be building plants to recover fuels from biomass and waste products on a large scale. Big furnaces, cracking towers, kilns, refractory lined brick structures that nobody has any idea what they do... yeah, I'd be all over that. I am also quite fascinated by the recovery of nitrogenous bases such as pyridine and quinoline, though not for any use: just to have them.

EDIT: Been thinking also a lot about the recovery of waste coal piles, from the standpoint of both chemistry raw materials and energy generation; nitrogenous bases et al sound neat, but that is a lot of work; and for now I have probably 50 other, more elementary experiments to do. At the rate of about 1 experiment every two weeks, I ought to get to the coal piles in about 75 years.

I really liked the "furfural from corn cobs" idea on here and had actually been researching some of these things prior to seeing that.

The setup you show there doesn't look too, too hard to make, although that thing in the right hand part looks like some kind of control box. That's where I start to get out of my element.

The big consideration in all this is the energy input source; to attain 450 C for cracking you're looking at somewhere about the heat of a campfire. Obviously in a setup designed to reduce oil dependence (and probably carbon emissions) you might need to engineer solar ovens or something... or perhaps electric furnaces powered by solar indirectly. These are somewhat disjointed ideas, admittedly, and in my excitement I didn't scrutinize every bit of the information provided.

Just my 0.02, as it were.

But yeah, very cool stuff.





[Edited on 6-5-2012 by Pyridinium]

Migratory - 6-5-2012 at 12:49

For those of you having trouble with the terrible English, just go to their Russian page and use Google translate. Much more readable.

In terms of making one yourself, I know I couldn't. It looks pretty complicated. However, you are not me, and I think a serious do-it-yourselfer could at least make a downsized, low efficiency model.

[Edited on 6-5-2012 by Migratory]

bbartlog - 6-5-2012 at 14:46

The look of the flanges on that baby suggests some serious MPa at work. You'd have to bring some fair engineering skills to bear if you wanted to mess with such pressure/temperature combinations without excessive risk.

497 - 6-5-2012 at 20:16

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The setup you show there doesn't look too, too hard to make, although that thing in the right hand part looks like some kind of control box. That's where I start to get out of my element.


Fortunately there's no need for any single individual to design, construct, and operate it. There are people out there who have the motivation and knowledge needed for every aspect of such a project. This thing called the internet might even be able to allow them to collaborate.

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Obviously in a setup designed to reduce oil dependence (and probably carbon emissions) you might need to engineer solar ovens or something... or perhaps electric furnaces powered by solar indirectly.


Concentrating solar collectors would be a great way to provide cheap process heat. Far far more efficient than solar electric heating! For simplicity's sake I'd start out using heat from combustion of gasses that are produced, along with recycled waste heat. Using solar heat might get you a 15-25% boost in yields of energy. Passive solar drying would be an easy way to start getting some utility out of the sun.
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Been thinking also a lot about the recovery of waste coal piles, from the standpoint of both chemistry raw materials and energy generation


Me too. You should look in to the possibilities of using waste plastics as feedstocks too. They can sometimes provide simpler mixtures and require less harsh conditions to process. Far less sulfur to deal with too.
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The look of the flanges on that baby suggests some serious MPa at work. You'd have to bring some fair engineering skills to bear if you wanted to mess with such pressure/temperature combinations without excessive risk.


Very true. Fortunately there is quite a variety of potential candidate processes, and there are several that don't need pressure. That picture is just an general illustration of the simplicity that is possible, I would not try to replicate it closely.

Edit:
Atmospheric pressure auger reactors look very promising. This review has a wealth of information on them and a variety of other types. They are one of the simplest and cheapest options for small scale situations. Yields of "bio oil" tend to be in the 40-60% range.

In situ catalytic cracking of the relatively unusable bio oil is also worth notice. Yields of high value, high octane rating aromatic hydrocarbons can be reasonably high using ZSM-5 zeolite impregnated with transition metals such as Fe, etc. This book has a nice overview of various catalysts that have potential for upgrading bio oil. This old paper gives details of the products resulting from plain ZSM-5 cracking wood pyrolysis vapor and other feedstocks. A system to regenerate the catalyst after coke deposits inactivate it will be the biggest hurdle.

Installing an attached second stage gasifier could provide heat and consume the char and leftovers from cracking, then the syngas would power a gen set or solid oxide fuel cell. Steam and CO2 happen to be great at gasifying char, so recycling the uncondensable gasses made during pyrolysis back in to the gasifier should work quite nicely. Red hot char also does a good job of scrubbing any residual tars that would foul an engine/fuel cell.

[Edited on 7-5-2012 by 497]