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ABSTRACT
Twenty per cent of municipal waste is non-biodegradable plastic, which currently ends
up in landfill, thereby creating pollution. With the relentless problem of landfill site
locations continuing to present difficulties to councils and waste collection agencies, the
single biggest cost of waste management today is transport. Many councils are now
forced to pay huge rates per ton simply to move the waste out of the collection areas and
into the landfill sites. Although many methods such as incineration and recycling are
there but they have again some drawbacks. To overcome this problem a new technology
has been developed for their better disposal. The Ozmotech Thermalysis system converts
these waste plastics into high- grade "Green" distillate fuel. Thermalysis has proven
successful, and is economically viable. The results of this extensive R&D program is a
virtually non-polluting, (100%) synthetic fuel which does not require engine modification
for maximum efficiency. The resultant distillates are unmatched for environmental
quality and economic viability. Existing diesel engines can run fully effectively on this
“green fuel” and meet year 2004 standards with no engine modification. Post consumer,
post-industrial unwashed and unsorted waste plastics are the feedstocks for the
Thermalysis process, and with a production efficiency of over 95%, the resultant diesel
output almost equals the waste material input.
One tonne of waste plastic will, on average, produce 930 - 980 litres of diesel fuel,
with just 10 - 50
ppm sulphur content.
Production costs, including capital costs recovery and operating costs, are generally
under 40 cents
per litre.
Green Distillate weighs approximately the same as virgin Diesels, and contains the
same energy (BTU rating) per litre.
There are no tradeoffs between engine performance and emissions and minimal additives
are required. The fuels are suitable for all stationery diesel engines including generators,
as well as all road engines including trucks and buses, and heavy machinery.
Green Distillates can replace virgin diesel fuel in unmodified Diesel engines operating
without expensive catalytic converters and is an ideal fuel for boilers, internal
combustion engines and turbines. Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) reduction of 100:1 and
recycling waste plastic into diesel fuel makes this system unique.
INTRODUCTION
Thermalysis is a process whereby scrap and waste plastics are converted into liquid
hydrocarbons that can be used as fuels. The system uses liquefaction, pyrolysis, and the
catalytic breakdown of plastics. The system can handle almost all the plastics that is
currently being sent to landfills The major advantage of the process is its ability to handle
unsorted, unwashed plastic. This means that heavily contaminated plastics such as mulch
film can be processed without difficulty. The same applies to siliche wrap, trickle tape
and other agricultural plastics. Other normally hard to recycle plastics such as laminate
soft incompatible polymers; multilayer films or polymer mixtures can also be processed
with ease unlike in conventional plastic recycling techniques. Most plastics can be
processed directly even if contaminated with dirt, aluminum laminates, printing inks, oil
residues etc.
Bio-energizer
Probiotic products which excite bacterial activity in waste waters, reduces sludges,fats,
greases and other bio-solids.Bio-energizer can be used in all applications from small
grease traps to major treatment lagoons.
Nytrox
Ozone generation equipment which is highly efective in the elimination of bacteria,
especially Legionella, in building cooling towers.
THE OPERATIONS
PYROLYSIS
Pyrolysis is the process of thermal disintegration in the absence of oxygen. Plastic waste
is continuously treated in a cylindrical chamber and the pyrolytic gases condensed in a
specially designed chamber system to yield hydrocarbon distillate comprising straight
and branched chain aliphatics, cyclic aliphatics and aromatic hydrocarbons. The resulting
mixture is essentially equivalent to petroleum distillate. Each Thermalysis plant can
process upto 8 tonnes per day of waste plastics converting it to approximately 7,500 lt of
high quality distillate. The plastic is pyrolised at 385-425o C and the pyrolysis gases are
condensed in a specially designed 3- stage condenser to give a low sulphur content
distillate.
The essential steps in the pyrolysis of plastics involves:
The heart of the pyrolysis system is the pyrolysis chamber which performs the essential
functions of melting, homogenization controlled decomposition and out gassing in a
single process. The process requires minimal maintenance apart from the carbon residue
removal and produces consistent quality distillate from the mixed and low grade plastic
waste. The key to the efficient pyrolysis process is to ensure that the plastic is heated
uniformly and rapidly. If the temperature gradients develop in the molten plastic mass
then the different degrees of cracking will occur and products with a wide distribution of
chain of lengths will be formed. Another important aspect of pyrolysis is to use a
negative pressure (or a partial vaccum) environment. This ensures that oxidation
reactions are minimized and that gaseous pyrolysis vapours are quickly removed from the
process chamber thereby reducing the incidence of secondary reactions and the formation
of undesirable byproducts. The polymer is generally cracked at relatively low
temperatures to give predominantly straight chain aliphatic hydrocarbons with little
formation of by-products. These hydrocarbons are then selectively condensed and
cleaved further catalytically to produce the average carbon chain length required for
distillate fuel.
SAFETY
Thermalysis operators under normal pressure, it is fully computer controlled and has
numerous safety features built in as part of design.
MAINTENANCE
Coking occurs in the chamber when the pyrolysis of the waste plastics is almost
complete. However, Thermalysis is designed to minimize coking by stabilizing heat
conductivity within the pyrolysis chamber. The chamber requires cleaning every second
process, and just takes 30 minutes.
PRE-TREATMENT
Generally, input feedstock plastics do not require washing or sorting. Thermalysis can
process any shapes of wastes up to 250 mm2 so the need for processing beyond
mechanical densification is minimised.Running costs include some electricity and water,
and no expensive materials or chemicals are used as catalysts. Some additives may be
required to modify viscosity of the distillate.
POLLUTION
The Thermalysis system produces extremely low level emissions. The key to Consumat's
low emission levels is the action of the dual chambers. The first operates in an air starved
atmosphere, where the waste is burned at high and precisely controlled temperatures.
Dioxins including carbon monoxide are produced in this chamber, but are not emitted
into the atmosphere. Instead, the gases are drawn into a second chamber which has
additional thermocouplers attached, and operates in an air forced atmosphere. The
precision of temperature and oxygen control results in the reformation of the carbon
monoxide into carbon di-oxide and water vapour, which are then vented. There is no
visible emission from the stack, which does not require scrubbers of any kind. Indeed,
when in full operation, the only way you can tell that the Consumat is running is from
the heat haze above the stack.
NOISE /VIBRATION
The system has very few moving parts, and accordingly there is no excessive noise or
vibration.
FOREIGN MATTERS
Foreign matters such as soil, sand or papers are often adherent matters attached to waste
plastics. The system is designed to cope with these foreign materials up to approximately
7% by weight or volume.
OFF GAS
Pyrolysis of plastics tends to occur on irregular basis hence the carbon chain lengths of
the pyrolysis gases vary between 1-25.Most of the gas is liquefied in the condenser but
some remain as gas. Hydrocarbon with carbon count of 4 and lower remain as gas at
room temperature. This off gas contains methane, ethane, propane, butane, etc. Although
volume of the gas differentiates depending upon the types of plastics it is usually 20%.
PRODUCT YIELD
Plastics are separated into oil,gas abnd char residue by pyrolysis.Recovery ratio and
characteristics of the product distillate differs depending on the types of plastics or
decomposing temperature and is :
Approximately 950 ml of oil can be recovered from 1 kg of plastics such as Olefins
including Polyethylene(PE) and Polypropylene(PP) or Polystyrene(PS).
Agricultural plastic:
Mulch and silage film is mainly polyethylene based but may be contaminated with up to
19%+ of soil. This level of contamination is of no problem for Thermalysis system. The
soil and dust simply acts as an inert filler and exits the process in the char/coke stream
. Other suitable agricultural plastics are used plastic pipes, used herbicide contrainers,
greenhouse film, trickle tape and dripper tube.
Energy requirements:
The Thermalysis plant is heated by burner using the distillate fuel produced by the
process itself. The oil burner requires approximately 24-28 litres distillate fuel/nr which
is only a fraction of the plant’s output.
Power co-generation:
One of the dominant issues for the waste management industry, and by extension,
government at all levels, is that of waste to energy, whereby the process of waste disposal
delivers the added benefit of generating power for internal and external use. This means
that the heat generated by the system during the destruction process can be harnessed to
heat water running through tubes to a boiler, attached to a turbine generator. This system
is capable of generating not only the energy necessary to run the plant, but has the
capacity to generate sufficient power to run other facilities on site, and often fed back into
the state grid to earn additional revenue. High efficiency generators can be integrated into
the design of the Thermalysis system.Each generator can produce up to 288 kw/hr.
OVERALL PERSPECTIVE
The level of infrastructure and established practices with respect to the collection of
waste plastic also plays an important role in defining the setup and the operation of
manual extraction and sorting. The current structure and or planned development of
collection services and segregation of household plastics in India will determine what
additional infrastructure needs to be considered as a part of overall collection and sorting
process for Thermalysis. From the industrial perspective, the use of waste plastic can be
viewed from two perspectives. Individual companies (private & government) that
accumulate significant waste plastic as a result of their manufacturing and productio n
processes may consider the instillation and the use of Thermalysis as a capital investment
for their own purposes. Significant interest and investment is currently coming from the
individual organizations that fall into this category. Beyond individual companies who
are willing to invest in the technology for in house purposes, there remains the ability to
source and collect waste plastic from industrial and commercial users in the same way
that the waste plastic is collected from the individual households. The structure of the
collection and sorting process of the plastic will be subject to current and planned waste
collection practices for the territories where a Thermalysis system may be in operation.
CONCLUSION:
It is reasonable to conclude that there is a significant effort in many countries to reduce
the use and the quality of plastic wherever possible. As an example we understand that
the Indian Government has introduced laws which ban the manufacture and supply of
thein shopping bags whilst legislation enforces the use of heavier plastics which can be
treated over and again. Such decisions ensure that less plastic bags are left to enter the
waste stream, however the overall weight and the volume of plastic in the heavier bags
counter balance such reductions when considering potential feedstock volumes for use in
a Thermalysis system. In summary, Thermalysis is a truly sustainable waste solution
since it divers plastic waste from landfills, utilises the embodied energy content of
plastics and produces highly usable commodity that, due to its cleaner burning
characteristics, is in itself more environment friendly than conventional distillate.