Carbon capture system
AssigneePlastics Decoded LLC
InventorsMichael Barkenhagen, Robert R Mahoney
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method for processing plastics includes receiving input plastics to be processed. The method further includes driving the input plastics through a reactor chamber having at least two zones each containing heated fluid that is heated to greater temperatures in a subsequent zone such that remaining plastics of the input plastics are exposed to increasingly greater temperatures in each zone of the reactor chamber. The method also includes collecting condensable vapors that flow out of the at least two zones of the reactor chamber. The method further includes condensing the condensable vapors into a liquid condensate. The method also includes removing biochar products from the heated fluid. The method further includes removing contaminants from the reactor chamber.
Claims20
A system for processing plastics, the system comprising:
- a reactor chamber configured to receive input plastics, having an input end designed to receive the input plastics and an output end opposite the input end, and being at least partially filled with a heated fluid such that the heated fluid has a greater temperature at the output end than at the input end, the heated fluid being heated to temperatures sufficiently great so as to cause pyrolysis of the input plastics to at least partially convert the input plastics into condensable vapors;
- and
- a condenser configured to receive the condensable vapors from the reactor chamber and to condense the condensable vapors into a liquid condensate,
- wherein:
- the reactor chamber includes a heavy contaminant outlet located at a bottom of the reactor chamber and configured to allow heavy contaminants having a greater density than the heated fluid to exit the reactor chamber, and
- the reactor chamber includes a light contaminant outlet located at or above a top surface of the heated fluid in the reactor chamber and configured to allow light contaminants having a lesser density than the heated fluid or products thereof to exit the reactor chamber.
A system for processing plastics, the system comprising:
- a reactor chamber configured to receive input plastics, having an input end designed to receive the input plastics and an output end opposite the input end, and being at least partially filled with a heated fluid that is heated to temperatures sufficiently great so as to cause pyrolysis of the input plastics to at least partially convert the input plastics into condensable vapors, wherein the heated fluid has a greater temperature at the output end than at the input end;
- a reactor auger located in and extending along a length of the reactor chamber, the reactor auger being configured to drive the input plastics through the reactor chamber;
- a condenser configured to receive the condensable vapors from the reactor chamber and to condense the condensable vapors into a liquid condensate;
- and
- a contaminant auger located towards a bottom of the reactor chamber and coaxially with the reactor auger and configured to drive contaminants through the reactor chamber to a location from which the contaminants may be removed from the reactor chamber.
A system for processing plastics, the system comprising:
- a molten salt;
- a reactor chamber having an input end configured to receive input plastics and an output end opposite the input end, the reactor chamber being at least partially filled with the molten salt such that the molten salt has a greater temperature at the output end than at the input end, the input plastics having first contaminants and second contaminants;
- and
- at least one heating element configured to heat the molten salt to a temperature that is sufficiently great so as to cause pyrolysis of the input plastics received by the reactor chamber, the pyrolysis at least partially converting the input plastics into condensable vapors to be condensed into a liquid condensate,
- wherein:
- the molten salt in the reactor chamber is designed to separate according to a difference in density the first contaminants from the second contaminants, the second contaminants being converted to char in the reactor chamber as a result of the temperature of the molten salt,
- the reactor chamber includes a heavy contaminant outlet located at a bottom of the reactor chamber and configured to allow the first contaminants having a greater density than the molten salt to exit the reactor chamber, and
- the reactor chamber includes a light contaminant outlet located at or above a top surface of the heated fluid in the reactor chamber and configured to allow the second contaminants or products thereof having a lesser density than the molten salt or products thereof to exit the reactor chamber.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.