Technology

Ozmotech Pty Ltd (Australia) is the exlusive manufacturer of Thermofuel Quad Chamber equipment.

The Thermofuel plant

System specifications

The process

Waste plastics are loaded into pyrolysis chamber. The chamber can generally be filled within 30 minutes. When the chamber temperature is raised, the plastics begin to melt and agitation commences to even the temperature. Pyrolysis then commences.

The gas goes through the patented catalytic converter and is converted into the distillate fraction by the catalytic cracking process. The distillate then passes into the recovery tank after cooling in the condenser. From the recovery tank, the product is sent to a centrifuge to remove contaminants such as water or carbon.

The cleaned distillate is then pumped to the reserve tank where a small quantity is drawn off as fuel for the system itself. The remaining product is pumped to the storage tanks.

The final product

Plastics are separated into oil, gas and char residue by pyrolysis. Recovery ratio and characteristics of the product distillate differs depending on the types of plastics or decomposing temperature.

Approximately 950 ml of oil can be recovered from 1kg plastics such as Olefins including Polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), or polystyrene (PS). Generally, input feedstock plastics do not require washing or sorting.

A comparison of the distillate produced from a commingled plastic mix compared with regular diesel has been conducted by gas chromatography, and shows good similarity between fuels, however, the distillate shows cleaner burning characteristics and contains no chemical elements other than those which can be found in the plastic waste.

Recovery ratio of different types of plastic

¹ Residual matters after burn out (dry carbon, etc.), ratio against plastic filled

² PE bags, containing higher volume of calcium carbonate

Foreign matter: Foreign matter such as soil, sand or papers are often adhered to waste plastics. Our system is designed to cope with these foreign materials up to approximately 7% by weight or volume.

Operating Features

The system is safe, efficient, easy to operate even by only one person and highly economical.

Thermofuel operates under normal pressure, it is fully computer controlled and has numerous safety features built in as part of the design. The mixed, commingled plastics that remain after higher value plastics have been recovered, can be processed by Thermofuel. Normal levels of contamination are no problem for the Thermofuel system. The soil and dirt simply acts as an inert filler and leaves the process in the char/coke stream.

Pollution

We are extremely conscious of potential air pollution through the operation of any of our waste treatment systems. The Thermofuel system produces extremely low level of emissions, due to the capture of almost all of the output, both liquids and gases, inside the system. The EPA sees no problems with the operation of a Thermofuel unit based on actual pollution data submitted.

Noise or vibration

The system has very few moving parts, and accordingly there is practically no noise or vibration.

Water contamination

Water is used for refrigeration and is circulated within the system. Since there is no waste water discharge from the system, no environmental risks to neighbouring groundwater or rivers exist.

Maintenance

Coking occurs in the chamber when the pyrolysis of the waste plastics is almost complete. However, Thermofuel is designed to minimise coking by stabilising heat conductivity within the pyrolysis chamber. The chamber requires cleaning every second process, and takes just 30 minutes.