Sustaining Our Planet for Future Generations
OilPura
Summary
Global plastic production increased over years due to the vast applications of plastics in many sectors. The rising in plastics demand led to the depletion of petroleum as part of non-renewable fossil fuel since plastics were the petroleum-based material. the recovery of plastic to liquid oil through the pyrolysis process had great potential since the oil produced had a high calorific value compared with the commercial fuel. The solution depends on the pyrolysis process by adding 1g of plastic waste to 1g of catalyst zeolite y in mild steel closed by using an external source of heat. Pyrolysis oil a good alternative fuel useful for society solving pollution and save the environment.
How We Addressed This Challenge
High demand for plastics has been received each year, the reduction of fossil fuel such as coal, gas, and especially petroleum that made up plastic itself has gained the great interest of many researchers to discover and develop potential energy resources due to the rising in energy demand. Some of the new energy resources that have been explored include solar energy, wind power, geothermal, and hydropower technology. Recently, energy conversion from waste has been an intelligent way to fully utilize the waste to meet the increased energy demand. The conversion of plastics to valuable energy is possible as they are derived from a petrochemical source, essentially having high calorific value. Hence, pyrolysis is one of the routes to waste minimization that has been gaining interest recently Pyrolysis is a process of chemically decomposing organic materials at elevated temperatures in the absence of oxygen.
produced during pyrolysis are oil, gas, and char which are valuable the three major products that are for industries especially production and refineries. Pyrolysis was chosen by many researchers since the process able to produce a high amount of liquid oil up to 80 wt% at a moderate temperature around 500 C.
Also, pyrolysis is very flexible since the process parameters can be manipulated to optimize the product yield based on preferences. The liquid oil produced can be used in multiple applications such as furnaces, boilers, turbines, and diesel.
Plastic waste was cut into small pieces that can be cracked by using zeolite Y that its one three-dimensional, microporous, crystalline solids with well-defined structures that contain aluminum-silicon, and oxygen in their regular framework, cations, and water are in the pores. Zeolite was mixed with plastic by 1:10. Then, pull oxygen from the container by using a vacuum pump to prevent fire and toxic gases. After that, the flow rate of 50 nitrogen close the lid regularly and put fire around the container. Finally, this process produces liquid (oil) and gas, we condense it to get liquid fuel. This prototype can be made on a high scale in real life by using it in factories. Ovens are available in factories that can generate more heat.
Pyrolysis oil represents a good alternative fuel and We get properties of this fuel oil which are namely viscosity, density, specific gravity, flash point, fire point, cloud point it's used as normal fuel at no cost. This fuel is less harmful to the environment than the normal fuel because, on a macro level, the low-sulfur content of plastic means that air pollution can be reduced when used as a fuel for boats, machinery, generators, and vehicles
We have been working on this project for two years, and participated in many competitors such as the smart innovation competition and won the first place, second place at I can competition (Canada international competition), and first category at blastoff national science & engineering fair.
Through each step and competition, we develop many things in the project. In this step, we have added a heat sensor to control heat to not waste it.
Companies sell petroleum products to manufacturers and industrial users, while fuels can help power cars, buses, ships, and planes
How We Developed This Project
there are several things that inspire us to make this project. firstly, It will solve environmental pollution with recycled materials. also, we believe in our project that it will make an evolution in petroleum extraction. secondly, the project has great efficiency after the testing.thirdly, the project has the applicability in the real life.
We developed our project by following AGILE methodology that is a practice that promotes continuous iteration of development and testing throughout the software development lifecycle of the project. In the Agile model, both development and testing activities are concurrent, unlike the Waterfall model.
We developed our project by making life scale and applicate it on real life. using heat sensor to control the amount of heat and not waste it
there are several things that inspire us to make this project. firstly, It will solve environmental pollution with recycled materials. also, we believe in our project that it will make an evolution in petroleum extraction.
How We Used Space Agency Data in This Project
we used it to clarify the solution and get a good way to reduce the wasted plastic and convert it to fuel, we know a lot about the environment and the impact of wasted plastic on the environment.
Project Demo
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cfD_JbiaGxaj64mqfGazyzyBi2z8YntJ/view
Data & Resources
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