Gasifying plastic?
Gasifying plastic?
I'm just wondering if anybody has tried gasifying plastic at all? My friend just discovered it and is thinking about trying it, since he says you can buy plastic from recycling centers for just a little more than they pay for it?
Thanks
(12-09-2012, 08:15 PM)sassparilla_kid I'm just wondering if anybody has tried gasifying plastic at all? My friend just discovered it and is thinking about trying it, since he says you can buy plastic from recycling centers for just a little more than they pay for it?
Thanks
(12-09-2012, 08:15 PM)sassparilla_kid I'm just wondering if anybody has tried gasifying plastic at all? My friend just discovered it and is thinking about trying it, since he says you can buy plastic from recycling centers for just a little more than they pay for it?
Thanks
I saw large scale versions of using plastic as fuel for generators or something. I posted some stuff about 'plastic to fuel' in the alt fuel forum.
http://www.superturbodiesel.com/std/thread-2566.html
Is that what you're talking about?
I wouldnt mess with it at all. There were some utube videos of this backwoods guy using the sun to turn the plastic into 'diesel'
Seems kinda ridiculous.
The science behind it is solid. A practical application of it is going to be a challenge though.
My understanding of the gasification process is that the fuel (plastic in this case) needs to be heated beyond its flash point in a pressure vessel and in the absence of oxygen. The resulting "smoke" is plumbed to a carburetor to be mixed with air and burned.
There are examples of this being done by the Germans towards the end of WWII. They converted some vehicles to run on "wood gas" using this gasification process.
Alternately, this "smoke" can be further processed by distilling the compounds to make a liquid "diesel" fuel.
I'd be very interested to hear more about it if you begin experimenting!
Yeah I know wood gasification is pretty easy for use in gas engines, my friend and I are looking for other alternative fuels for another project. I think the best contender right now is going to be making an anaerobic digester to turn organic waste (food scraps, cow poop, whatever) into natural gas, either to supplement home gas usage or maybe to compress into cylinders to run in cars. I know diesel engines can run on about 70/30 natural gas/diesel mix without any ill effects