Design And Fabrication Of A Pyrolysis Reactor

1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Every year nearly 500 million tonnes of plastics are used by people and much of that plastic ends up in the environment harming marine life and other ecosystems. Plastics are non-bio – degradable material in nature. Due to the population increase the demand for plastic products as steady increased over last 10 years. There are several methods for disposal of municipal and industrial waste as landfill, incineration material recycling and chemical recovery. The suitable treatment of plastic waste is one of the major factors of waste management. This paper deals with objective of develop a mini reactor to convert plastic waste into liquid fuel.
The main components of the machine: frame, shredding knife, filter, upper casing and mover. The shredded plastics went out through the filter and then outlet. The entire researcher utilized big reactor and pyrolysisi setup for converting plastic waste into fuel oil. But no one design and fabricate a prototype pyrolysis setup for plastic pyrolysis process.
Low density polyethylene, High Density Polyethylene, Polypropylene, Polyvinyl Chloride, Polystyrene and polypropylene are the mainly used plastics in the world. Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) is used in the drinking water packaging. Plastics are derived from petroleum derivatives and it is considered to be difficult to decompose and so the plastics are a pollutant (air, land and water). The plastics are the potential problem in the future. Most of the places in the world are filled with unmanageable solid waste. Low density polyethylene (LDPE) is used as the cheapest mode of packaging the materials. Immediately plastics become most popular in almost all the communities but unfortunately this has led to new source of solid waste because of the LDPE has extremely low rate of degradation. Similarly, amount of fuel decreasing day by day and a prevention method is needed to overcome this fuel deficiency. Plastics are the widely used ingredient to produce fuel by a pyrolysis process.
Pyrolysis is the chemical decomposition process of the organic substances by heating externally which involves the simultaneous change of chemical composition and physical phase, and is irreversible. Pyrolysis is used in the starting of 19th century which is mainly consists of chemical reaction. That is, take place by the burning of all solid organic wastes like wood, cloth, and paper, and also some kind plastic. Anhydrous pyrolysis process is another pyrolysis process which can be used to produce liquid fuels similar to diesel from plastic waste. The pyrolysis process is the breaking or cracking of long chain polymer molecule of the plastics into shorter chains through heat and pressure. That is, pyrolysis process is almost equal to the natural process break down carbon into oil in the earth which takes millions of years in nature. The pyrolysis process does this with the help of intense heat in a closed system in a short amount of time.
In this work we design and fabricate a pyrolysis reactor for conversion of plastic into fuel and energy recovery process.

1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT
The amount plastic waste is increasing which results in a chronic problem to the environment. In recent decades, there has been a dramatic increment in plastic consumption. Used plastic is one of the major wastes in many countries including Nigeria. A lot of money is spent in land filling to process plastic wastes which can pose a threat to environment in long run. The incineration of plastic wastes leads to severe air pollution. Plastic pyrolysis process is a widely used technique to handle plastic wastes in many foreign countries. It is a new technology in Nigeria context. It involves melting plastic wastes, vaporizing them, condensing the vapor and distilling to obtain fuel.

1.3 AIM AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The main aim of this study is to build a pyrolysis reactor which is on of the major components of the pyrolyser machine. The objectives of the study are:
i. To develop a pyrolysis reactor prototype
ii. To evaluate the performance of a pyrolysis reactor
iii. To investigate the use of pyrolysis of plastic waste to produce fuel oil.
iv. To produce liquid from biomass solid waste by pyrolysis process,
v. To analyze the liquid product obtained from the pyrolysis system.

1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The scope of this work covers building a pyrolysis reactor which is the part where plastics are heated, vaporized and the vapor thus produced is passed to shell and tube condenser for condensation. The liquid thus obtained is called pyrolysis oil and char remains in pyrolysis reactor as residue. The yields depend on various factors like plastic type used, cracking temperature of plastic, rate of heating, operation pressure of reactor, type of reactor, residence time, use of catalyst, etc.

1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
This study will serve as a means of reducing as well as reuse the plastic waste. This study will serve as a means of reducing air pollution cause by used plastics.