"PROCESS AND PLANT FOR CONVERSION OF SEGREGATED OR UNSEGREGATED CARBONACEOUS HOMOGENEOUS AND NON- HOMOGENEOUS WASTE FEED INTO HYDROCARBON FUELS"

RELATED APPLICATION:

This application is complete cognate application for the provisional application 2978/MUM/201 1 dated 21 ^st October, 201 1 and patent application 3062/MUM/ 201 1, dated 31 ^st October, 2011.

FIELD OF INVENTION:

The present invention relates to pyro-catalytic continuous process for conversion of carbonaceous homogenous and/or heterogeneous, segregated or unsegregated, wet or dry multi-feed waste material into hydrocarbon fuels and solid carbon in presence of external agglomerated nano catalyst. The invention also relates to a compact, modular, economic and simple to operate processing plant for pyro-catalytic cracking of said waste material into value added eco-friendly fuels and industrially usable solid carbon mass.

BACKGROUND OF INVENTION:

One of the banes of fast evolving and advancing civilisations is widely recognized to be the unmanageably large avoidable industrial and domestic wastes generated on a daily basis. Waste management has been a challenge to the urban communities and corporations under pressure from environmental regulators and global agencies. Ozone depletion, carbon credits, greenhouse emissions and global warming are subjects of discussion, debates and negotiations globally, seeking short term as well as long term solutions for reversing the negative trends.

Consequently, various approaches have been adopted to beneficially process the waste and convert them into value added end product. The methods have been developed to convert organic waste using pyrolysis process. Processes for converting waste plastics into petroleum products using homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis have also been developed in the past. Process for converting waste rubber into high viscosity oils is also reported. However, most of these processes have been attempted to convert specifically restricted feed stocks into fuels using pyro-catalytic process with or without catalyst. The reported processes have always required the feed stock to be clean, dry and washed before using them as inputs.

Further, the feed stocks, which are generally waste materials, are almost moist, contaminated, un-segregated, non-homogeneous and homogeneous blends and as such cannot be processed by conventional methods. Segregation, washing and drying are expensive procedure which makes the processes un-economic. Besides, there are environmental costs to the cleaning process as the water and detergents used in the washing process add to the cost and disposal concerns. Further, the drying process requires energy and increases the cost of processing.

Besides, the conventional processes utilize a high temperature process regime which is energy intensive and energy costs make the processes ur.-economic. Also, the processes leave either ash or tar like residues which require further disposal at an additionally considerable cost and which adds to the environmental concerns.

Moreover, in these reported processes the end product is either a syngas having a low calorific value or a liquid fuel having a high viscosity with a low value generation for the processors.

Understandably, such drawbacks of these processes are largely an outcome of inefficiency of the available apparatus systems which are not equipped to multi-purposely solve such various issues seen in the prior art. This leads to employing an additional amount of necessary paraphernalia, each of which adds to the serviceability and maintenance of the entire plant assembly. Also, due to the thermodynamic nature of pyrolytic processes and related equipment, each additional equipment translates into added number of monitoring apparatuses or personnel accompanied by safety hazards.

US5811606 describes a process for treating waste plastics including adding the waste plastics and a catalyst into a reactor for catalytic cracking to obtain gasoline and diesel oil. The patent teaches mixing of powdered catalyst intrinsically into viscous reactants, such as molten plastic in this case, which leads to non-uniform mixing and incomplete and inefficient cracking leading to waxy and inconsistent products. Such a process and its equipment are not conducive to handle unprocessed, moisture laden wastes. Volatile vapours generated in the process tend to pose a dangerous explosive hazard should there be any leaks. Residual products that cannot be reutilised may pose yet another disposal issue.

US7473348 (Christian Koch/ Alphakat), discloses a process for production of diesel oil from hydrocarbon-containing residues in an oil circuit with solids separation and product distillation for the diesel product with energy input by means of pumps and counter rotating agitators and by the use of fully crystallized catalysts of potassium, sodium, calcium, and magnesium-aluminium silicates, where all surfaces are cleaned continuously by the agitator mechanisms.

WO 2005/087897 (Ozmotech) describes a process and plant for . the thermocatalytic conversion of plastic waste materials into reusable fuels and a fuel produced by the process involving the steps of delivering melted plastic material to one or more pyrolysis chambers via heated and valved manifolds and effecting pyrolysis of the plastic material into a gaseous state in an oxygen purged and pressure controlled environment. Pyrolytic gases are then transferred to a catalytic converter where the molecular structure of the gaseous material is altered in structure and form, followed by transferring gases to one or more condenser means to distil and cool gases into separate fractions. The said condenser system is operated at a temperature ranging from 60°C to 8°C where the gases are selectively cooled and distilled at the said temperature. Further, the application proposes use of a conventional catalytic reactor tower that uses high surface area metal plates arranged in a torturous path as catalysts. The catalysts are selected from from a special catalytic metal alloy including MCM-41, silicates of iron , cobalt, nickel, manganese, chromium etc and the chamber is heated to 220C for selected pyrolysis to obtain a fuel with a carbon chain in the range of C8-C25 peaking at C I 6 (octane).

The plant in said application described includes a) commuting means for breaking the waste material into particulate matter ; b) melting means for receiving and melting the particulate waste maternal ; c) pyrolysis chamber for receiving waste material, the pyrolysis chamber operative to: i) seal the chamber from the environment and to purge air-borne oxidants from the pyrolysis chamber by the introduction of a non-oxidising gas; and ii) heat the waste material to effect pyrolysis of the waste material into a gaseous state in a substantially air-borne oxidant-free and pressure-controlled environment ; d) catalytic converter means, consisting of metallic plates having a torturous path for contact with the pyrolysed gases, operative to receive and crack the gaseous waste material whereby the molecular structure of the gaseous material is altered ; and e) condenser means operative to receive, cool and separate the cracked gaseous material into fractions to form at least one type.

The said arrangement thus becomes bulky and inconvenient for serviceability and maintenance and requires a halt in the working of the plant in order to carry out the servicing and maintenance. The functioning of the said tower is dependent upon maintaining its temperature to 220°C thus adding additional steps and components required in the process. Besides, the non-condensable gases and the liquid fuels have to undergo additional filtration and scrubbing steps thus adding to additional equipment, increased capital cost and need for costly maintenance in the operation of the plants. Moreover, the process described in said application is selective to plastics as waste feed material.

A German application DE 3503069 discloses a rotary-drum reactor, which is indirectly heated by means of a flowing heat transfer medium, comprising a rotatably mounted, drivable shell tube and a plurality of tubes or tube sections arranged within the shell tube in which, the tubes or tube sections arranged in the interior of the shell tube are designed as material tubes for the throughput of the material to be reacted. The material tubes can be heated indirectly and individually by means of liquid heat transfer media, and the outer wall of the shell tube does not come into contact with the heat transfer medium. Each of the plurality of material tubes preferably is covered with the heating coils and is heated indirectly. The reactor is preferably used for pyrolysis. Further, the process is characterized in that the indirect heating is accomplished by using a salt melt as the heat transfer medium. Such a construction envisages a multi-chamber reactor system, wherein maintaining reaction constraints over the distributed material tubes may pose an additional challenge of serviceability, also due to multiple material tubes it leads to additional reactant losses thereby minimizing the yield while incurring additional operational expenditure costs.

The conventional processes and the plant units for the processes of applications described hereinabove are targeted to convert one or two limited feed stocks into end products, the processes require pre-segregation and pre-processing, the processes cannot handle waste in an un-segregated manner and the catalysts have low efficiency at low temperature affecting the yield of liquid hydrocarbon fuels, produce gas with low calorific value. Moreover, the conventional processes of thermal cracking and catalytic cracking are preceded separately at high temperature leading to high consumption of energy and carbonization of raw material thereby leading to low yield and quality of oil and gas. Equipment seen in the prior art fail to embody higher levels of safety and minimize accidental hazards.

Thus, the processes and the processing plant unit for pyro-catalytic conversion of carbonaceous feed material into useful industrial fuels, in the prior art as seen above, leave much to be desired. Therefore, there is a distinct need for a process /process unit, for a cost and energy efficient pyro-catalytic process that can treat carbonaceous homogenous and /or, heterogeneous, untreated single or multi-feed varied waste material to generate liquid fuels having a high end product value and industrially usable solid carbon mass in industrious quantity. Further, the object of the invention lie in providing a process/ means which is convenient, safe, operates at the optimal vaporization temperature of the various types of feed material in a single chamber, and has a methodical way of disposal of untreated and other residual discharge which can be recycled and reused in a continuous manner.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION:

The present invention provides a process for the conversion of un-segregated or segregated, wet or dry, co-mingled, carbonaceous homogenous and/or heterogeneous, contaminated, moist material as individual feed or multi-feed into usable hydrocarbon liquid fuels and carbon, which are all fuels having a high end product value, by a pyro- catalytic process using agglomerated nano catalyst, embedded in multifunctional cartridges, that is not mixed with the processed input material. The present invention can process almost any feed stock wet or dry, in an unsegregated/segregated mode/form, containing hydrogen-carbon bonds within their molecular structures to produce combustible fuel, liquid fuels and carbon residue.

In an aspect, the present invention provides a pyro-catalytic continuous process of conversion of carbonaceous homogenous and/or heterogeneous waste feed into usable combustible fuels and solid carbon, using external agglomerated nano catalyst, the said process involving the following steps;

a) Sizing the input feed with a retractable hopper shredder/crusher and transporting the sized input to the rotary reactor vessel of the processing plant;

b) Vaporizing the input feed in the indirectly heated rotary reactor vessel in a processing plant at a temperature in the range of 80°-450°C to obtain intermediate gases/vapors of higher molecular weight hydrocarbons, hydrogen and others;

c) Pyro-catalytic cracking of the intermediate vapors of higher molecular weight hydrocarbons of step (b) by passing the vapors through field ^■ replaceable multifunctional cartridges loaded with agglomerated nano catalyst in the processing plant to obtain gases/ vapors of low molecular weight hydrocarbons and others;

d) condensing the cracked gases/ vapors of step (c) in gas condensers of the processing plant to obtain liquid fuels having different hydrocarbon chains, collecting the liquid fuel and distilling the liquid fuels to obtain fine fractions;

e) storing the non-condensed combustible gases of step (d) into the combustible gas storage tank as fuel to produce power for the processing plant; and

f) discharging the accumulated char/coal residue after vaporization of step (c ) using an 'automated water cooled residue conveyor system' for removal of coal/ char followed by passing the discharge residue 'through an automated segregation systems' to separately obtain ferrous metal, non-ferrous metals, glass etc. The process is a low temperature pyrolysis process conducted at atmospheric pressure. The process can process all types of waste feed material containing hydrogen-carbon bonds, either in segregated or unsegregated mode/ form, wet or dry.

In another aspect, the present invention provides a processing plant for the conversion of waste material. The plant is designed using a modular concept for providing flexibility in operations and production. The plant is flexible enough to derive the end products online without changing the feed design.

Accordingly, the present invention discloses a processing plant for the pyro-catalytic conversion of carbonaceous homogenous and/or heterogeneous waste feed, into usable combustible fuels and solid carbon. The plant has the following components as illustrated in Fig 1 ;

a. Waste storage bin for storage of collected waste materials for the input feed;

b. Hopper-Shredder (1) for shredding and sizing of input feed;

c. Indirectly heated Rotary Reactor Vaporizer (RRV) or a Rotar vaporizer (2) for reacting and vaporizing input feed;

d. A field replaceable Multifunction Cartridge (3) loaded with external agglomerated nano catalyst for pyro-catalytic cracking of vaporized input feed;

e. Condensers (4) for condensing products of pyro-catalytic cracking; f. Centrifugal pumps (5) placed as necessary;

g. Oil storage tanks (6) for storage of said condensed products;

h. Gas booster (7);

i. Gas storage tank(8);

j. Residue cooler (9) to cool down residue released from the RRV;

k. Ferrous material separator (10);

1. Non- ferrous material separator (1 1 );

m. Inert material separators ( 12); and

n. Coal processing unit (13). The process system does not require external energy source for the processing. The non - condensed gas generated during the process is used to provide energy to the process which makes the process self -sufficient and economical. Moreover, the process is safe and monitored for leakages with gas monitors placed at strategic locations. The oil recovered from the process is light hydrocarbon oil which is a mixture of liquid fuels similar in properties to gasoline, diesel, kerosene and fuel oil. Further, the fuel recovered is free from particle matter and it is clean for use as a fuel directly in generators, furnaces, marine vessels and all other places where un-distilled fuels can be used.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS:

Fig. 1: illustrates plant assembly schematically excluding the residue conveyor and material segregation system.

Fig 2: illustrates the residue recovery and material conveyor plant assembly

schematically.

Fig. 3: illustrates a flow diagram of the current process.

Fig. 4: illustrates the arrangement of multifunctional cartridge arranged in a system of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRD?TION OF INVENTION:

The invention will now be described in detail in connection with certain preferred and optional embodiments, so that various aspects thereof may be more fully understood and appreciated.

The present invention provides, in accordance with the objectives, a continuous pyro- catalytic process for the conversion of carbonaceous homogenous and/or heterogeneous, waste material/feed into combustible gas, liquid fuels and carbon, which are all fuels having a high end product value, using agglomerated nano catalyst, loaded on multifunctional cartridges, that is not added to the processed input material. The present invention can process almost any feed stock, in an unsegregated/segregated mode/ form, wet or dry, containing hydrogen-carbon bonds within their molecular structures to produce liquid fuels, combustible gases and carbon residue. The present invention also provides an improved processing plant for converting said feed material into recyclable fuels. The plant embodied by the present invention is energy and cost efficient, checks for accidental hazards by carrying out said processes at relatively low temperatures and under atmospheric pressure, yet providing industrious output of high end hydrocarbon fluids in large yields.

The process can convert individual homogenous waste streams or a heterogeneous mixture of co-mingled, un-segregated or segregated, wet or dry, dirty, contaminated waste materials containing hydrogen and carbon in their chemical structure. Such waste materials include and not limited to : Municipal solid waste, waste plastics including halogenated plastics and high temperature resistant industrial plastics, e-waste, waste rubber tyres and other rubber materials, Styrofoam, organic waste , polymer waste, agro waste such as sugar cane bagasse, edible and non-edible seeds, grass, bamboo, empty fruit bunch from palm oil extraction, bio-solids from oil seed wastes, de-oiled cakes from the extraction of edible oils like coconut, peanut, mustard, castor and other oils, waste lubricating oil from automobiles, automobile fluff, bio-solids from sewage treatment plants, vegetable fats, animal fats, used cooking oil, Jathropha and other oil bearing seeds, refinery waste products such as tank bottom sludge, vacuum residue, off-spec oils and lubricants, residual oils from oil tankers, soil contaminated with hydrocarbons, any hydrocarbon product, fibrous materials such as coconut fibre, coconut shells, any other vegetable plant based product including trimmings, leaves, stem, branches, roots, algae, water hyacinth and other aquatic plants, any polymeric material containing hydrogen- carbon bonds within its molecular structure, any organic material containing hydrogen- carbon bonds within their molecular structure.

In an embodiment, the pyro-catalytic continuous process for conversion of carbonaceous homogeneous and/or heterogeneous waste material into hydrocarbon fuels and solid carbon include the steps as follows:

a) Sizing the input feed with a retractable hopper shredder/crusher and transporting the sized input to the rotary reactor vessel of the processing plant;

b) Vaporizing the input feed in the indirectly heated rotary reactor vessel of the processing plant, at a temperature in the range of 80°C-450°C to obtain intermediate gases/vapours of higher molecular weight hydrocarbons, hydrogen and others; c) Pyro-catalytic cracking of the intemiediate vapours of higher molecular weight hydrocarbons of step (b) by passing the vapours through field replaceable multifunction cartridges loaded with agglomerated nano catalyst, of the processing plant, to obtain gases/ vapours of low molecular weight hydrocarbons and others; d) condensing the cracked gases/vapours of step (c) in gas condensers of the processing plant to obtain liquid fuels having different hydrocarbon chains, collecting the liquid fuel and distilling the liquid fuels to obtain fine fractions; e) storing the non-condensed combustible gases of step (d) into the combustible gas storage tank ) as fuel to produce power for the processing plant; and

f discharging the accumulated char/coal residue after vaporisation of step (c ) using an "automated water cooled residue conveyor system" for removal of coal/ char followed by passing the discharge residue through an "automated segregation systems" to obtain coal, ferrous metal, non-ferrous metals, glass etc.

The rotary reaction vessel for vaporisation of feed material as given in step (b) is either the rotary reactor cum vaporizer (RRV) system or reactor cum vaporizer (RV) system and is heated indirectly; preferably it is the rotary reactor cum vaporizer (RRV) system.

According to the process, the input waste feed is carried over conveyor systems from said dumping and storage means to a retractable hopper, shredder. The carbonaceous homogeneous and/or heterogeneous waste material/feed is shredded into thin pieces of the size in the range of 25 mm to 50 mm by means of retractable hopper Shredder ) and is transported into the rotary reactor vessels. The shredded carbonaceous solid wastes, plastics, municipal solid wastes, etc. along with other foreign materials such as dirt, sand etc., are taken into the processors as they come. In case of petroleum waste processing, the feed is passed through a Positive Displacement pump (PD) (not disclosed in figure) where the highly viscous tank bottoms sludge, bituminous material, tar sands etc. are uniformly fed in to the RV or RRV vessels using said PD pump whose discharge can be controlled using control valves.

The feed system consists of a pneumatic conveyor or a mechanical conveyor. The shredded plastics are fed into a hopper shredder and through the hopper shredder they are pushed into an extruder. The extruder is heated and acts as pre-heating system to remove moisture. In this system, the dust generated and other foreign materials such as dirt, sand etc., are not removed and the plastics are taken into the processors as they come. The conveyor is integrated with the Hopper, shredder -auger system to form a single entity to minimize the size and the space requirement of the unit.

The rotary reactor vessel (RRV) is one of the key functional apparatus in the plant assembly. It performs the main function of uniformly vaporizing the homogenous and/or heterogeneous, singular or miscellaneous feed into a uniform useable vaporized feed, thus making it possible to use any versatile feedstock and carry the entire process at a relatively, overall low temperature range of 80°C-450°C.

The rotary reactor cum vaporizer comprises an inner rotating drum and outer chamber arranged in a concentric/jacketed fashion wherein, the inner rotary rotating drum accepting the input feed is enclosed in the stationary outer combustion chamber separated by an air gap; and a heating means to generate heat flux in the said air gap.

Thus, in a preferred embodiment, the shredded input material is sent to a Rotary Reactor cum Vaporizer vessel system (RRV) which is heated from outside using Electrical, Infrared, Gas Infrared or any suitable form of heating, preferably, Gas Infrared. The material to be heated is inserted from one end of the RRV vessel and subjected to the heat flux for a fixed duration where vaporisation of input material occurs on reaching the vaporisation temperature in the RRV vessel and on completion intermediate high molecular weight hydrocarbons, hydrogen and other gases are formed. The temperature is maintained in the temperature range of 80°-450°C.

In the vaporisation process carried out in the Rotary Reactor cum Vaporizer (RRV) vessel, the vaporisation is controlled in such a way that the input material reaches the vaporization temperature (80°-450°C) and by the time it reaches the end of the RRV vessel, vaporization is completed and only higher molecular weight hydrocarbons, hydrogen and other gases are obtained for further pyro-catalytic cracking. The process is designed as a continuous feed process with the feed inserted from one end and the vapours/gases discharged at the other end. Alternately, the shredded input material is sent to the vertical RV Vessel heated indirectly by using infra-red gas heaters placed in the insulated combustion chamber heated by means of induction heating, Infra-Red heating, indirect gas/liquid fuel combustion or any other heating system. The RV Vessel) is heated from outside and when the temperature inside the vessel starts to rise; the material inside the RV vessel begins to vaporize to obtain gases/ vapours of high molecular weight hydrocarbons. The temperature is in the range of 80 deg C to 450 deg C, depending upon the material inside the RV vessel.

The heat flux in the RRV Vessel is a variable system and the temperature can be set to meet the specific melting points of different polymers or specific vaporization temperatures of the organic waste, or rubber etc.

Thus, in its preferred embodiment, there is no direct combustion of the material inside the RRV or RV vessel at any given time.

The inclination of the RRV is maintained at a certain inclination and its rotational speed is maintained uniform to provide a specified amount of residence time and an appropriate impact of heat from the heated air gap to the input feed for the duration of its reaction and vaporization. The preferred residence time varies between 20 minutes to 90 minutes.

Accordingly, the rotational speed of the RRV varies between 10 rpm to I 20rpm preferably between 10-60 rpm keeping in mind the nature and composition of the input feed material and the inclination of the RRV is maintained in the range 0° to 45°; preferably at 0° to 20° to ensure continuous optimum flow of feed material.

After vaporization, the intermediate high molecular weight hydrocarbons, hydrogen and other gases are passed through the Multifunction Cartridge system while the solid charred residue is discharged via automated water cooled residue conveyor system to residue cooler to be disposed properly.

The Multifunction Cartridge system comprises of multiple multifunctional cartridges arranged in rows, and is loaded with a pre-designated single/multi layered agglomerated nano catalyst. The thickness of the catalyst column in the multifunctional cartridges controls the output product composition. The thicker the column, the lighter fractions or combustible gases in the output and the thinner the column width, the higher viscosity fuels are generated. Thus, the catalyst column thickness is a critical function of the process. The said pre-designated catalyst may be a nano structure catalyst having a blend of nano-particles of the metal, metal oxide, metal hydroxides of the group 4 metals from period 4 and Block D of the Periodic table either alone or combination thereof. The particle size of the nano catalyst is in the range of 20 to 100 nano-meters which are agglomerated to nanocatalyst having the particle size in the range of 100-500 microns. The agglomerated nano-catalyst having a specific gravity of 4.0 to 5.0 is placed inside the catalytic convertor tubes having a column thickness in the range of 1 cm to l OOcms and beyond.

The higher molecular weight gases and vapours are allowed to pass through the catalyst bed embedded in multifunctional cartridges where higher molecular weight gases and vapours from RRV or RV are broken down into low molecular weight hydrocarbon molecules and reformed into molecular chains which are very similar to the standard hydrocarbon products such as gasoline, kerosene, diesel etc.

Any choking of the catalyst will increase the pressure inside the multifunctional cartridge which is sensed by the sensors. The sensors then send a signal to the microprocessor which immediately redirects the flow of the processed input vapours to an idle multifunctional cartridge by opening the valves of that multifunctional cartridge while shutting off the valves at the choked multifunctional cartridge. The operation is carried out automatically and the microprocessor indication of a choked multifunctional cartridge then leads to the replacement of the said choked multifunctional cartridge by an operator. The multifunctional cartridges can withstand a temperature of up to 500°C. The field replaceable multifunctional cartridges is arranged in a plurality of rows, each of the said rows consisting of a plurality of cartridges enclosed in tubes, connected in parallel between a common inlet valve and a common outlet valve. The multifunctional cartridges are connected to common inlet manifold from one side and a common outlet manifold from the other sides. Both the inlet and outlet sides are equipped with flow control valves which are hydraulically or pneumatically controlled through a microprocessor control. A row normally consists of 7 multifunctional cartridges, each for a day. There are two rows connected in parallel thus making 14 multifunctional cartridges. A common discharge valve connected to the outlet of the Reactor vessels, allows the passage of vapours into the common inlet manifolds of each row. The common discharge valve releases the reformed gases into the inlet of the condenser. The multifunctional cartridges are individually connected to the manifold through quick release couplings. The couplings can be detached quickly for the change of the tubes while the process is being carried out. This change is accomplished by the closing of valves connecting the inlet and outlet manifolds with the multifunctional cartridges. The two rows of multifunctional cartridges make one module. Several modules may be attached to each other in series through the end connectors provided on the manifolds. This increases the capacity of the multifunctional cartridges to handle larger volume of gases when large volume of in-feed material has to be handled. The catalyst modules can be added or removed at will, based on the site requirement.

The agglomerated nano catalyst acts as a pyro-catalyst at a temperature in the range of 10-80°C and can be effective even in the temperature range of 10 ^o -500°C, preferably at a temperature of 30°C to 90°C and de-polymerizes the higher molecular weight molecules of polymers made from hydrocarbons/petrochemicals. The process is done at atmospheric pressures and the process is not pressurized. There is no vacuum applied to the process. Thus, the conditions of processing are unique that the temperature of conversion is low and happens under atmospheric pressure conditions. Further, the process takes place in absence of oxygen.

The agglomerated nano-catalyst is a metal, metal oxide, metal hydroxide either alone or in combination thereof, optionally in combination with the binder or montmorillonate clay, selected from the transition metals of group IV, the lanthanides or actinide series of 'd' or 'f block elements.. The nano catalyst has size in the range of 20-100 nm, which is agglomerated to obtain granules of particle size in the range of 100 - 500 microns. The agglomerated nano-catalyst has a sp. gravity in the range of 4.2-5 and is packed inside a cylindrical steel column The column is sealed at both the ends with one inlet and one outlet opening allowing for the receipt of vapours from the reactor and to discharge the de-polymerized, reformed gases to the heat exchangers and condensers. The single or multilayered agglomerated nano catalyst loaded in multifunctional cartridges is represented by a general formula;

AxByOz/Qn. (OH)m

where, 'A' represents transition element selected from Ti, Mn, Cr, Fe, Ni, Nb, Mo, Zr, Hf, Ta, Zn, either alone or mixture thereof in metallic or oxide or as hydroxides; 'B' represents rare earth elements of group III B including the lanthanide series, and actinide series comprising the 'f-block' selected from Sc, Yt, La, Ce, Nd, Pr, Th either alone or mixtures thereof in metallic or oxide or as hydroxides;

'x' is the number in the range of about 0-2; 'y' is the number in the range of about 0-2;

'm' is the number in the range of about 0-4; 'n' is the number 0, 1 ;

'z' is the number of oxygen atoms needed to fulfill the requirements of the elements possible;

'Q' represents montmorillonate clay or its derivatives; and optionally along with an organic binder selected from Titanium Tetraflouride, ethylene glycol, ethylene glycol monomethylether (EGME), methyl cellulose, tetrafloroethylyne, poly(diallyl- dimethylammonium, L-lysine, L-proline, Phenolics, Ethenol homoPolymers; preferably Ethenol homoPolymers.

The catalyst tubes are kept outside the process reactors and thus act as heterogeneous catalyst system wherein the catalyst is not added along with the processed input material but the vapours from the processed materials are passed through the catalyst column which is kept outside the reactors.

The thickness of the catalyst column is a critical function and dictates the outlet gas composition. The thicker the column, the lighter fractions or combustible gases are obtained in the outlet and the thinner the column width, the higher viscosity fuels are derived. The thickness of catalyst bed varies in the range of lcms to 100 cms and beyond. In another aspect, the catalyst is a single or multi-layered fixed bed reactor thereby allowing the reuse of the catalyst. Also, since the catalyst is an external catalyst, there is no direct contact with the feed material thus eliminating catalyst degradation and increasing the life of the catalyst. The heterogeneous catalyst has a BET surface area of 30-250m /gm thus reducing the time of conversion without compromising on the quality of the conversion process. The contamination due to residual catalyst in the residue or in the gases or in the condensed liquid fuels is eliminated making this an environmentally friendly process.

In an embodiment, the catalyst used for the conversion of carbonaceous feed material into usable hydrocarbon fuel and solid carbon selected from;

i. 50% by weight element 'A' as oxide, 25% by weight element 'B' in metallic form and 25% by weight montmorillonate clay (Q);

ii. 30% by weight element 'A' as hydroxide, 10% by weight binder and 60% by weight element 'A' as its oxide;

iii. 12% by weight element 'B' in metallic form and 88% by weight montmorillonate clay or its derivatives (Q);

iv. 6% by weight element 'B' in metallic form, 44% by weight montmorillonate clay or its derivatives (Q), 30% by weight element 'A' as oxide, 15% by weight element 'A' as hydroxide and 5% by weight binder; or

v. Nanoparticles of element 'A' as oxide or hydroxide particularly 35% by weight of titanium hydroxide and 65% by weight of titanium oxide.

In a preferred embodiment, the catalyst composition is selected from the following;

1. The catalyst type IA consisting of 30% by weight of titanium hydroxide, 10% by weight organic binder and 60% by weight of titanium oxide.

2. The catalyst type IB consists of 12% by weight of lanthanum and 88% by weight montmorillonate clay or its derivatives.

3. The catalyst type IC consisting of 6%by weight of Lanthanum, 44%by weight montmorillonate clay or its derivatives, 30% by weight titanium oxide, 15% by weight titanium hydroxide and 5% by weight Ethenol homoPolymers as organic binder.

The gas generated during pyro-cracking is a mixture of hydrogen, low molecular weight hydrocarbons, carbon dioxide. Due to presence of hydrogen and hydrocarbons this gas burns smoothly with clear blue flame. The gases/vapours of low molecular weight hydrocarbon gases obtained after pyro- catalytic cracking are further passed into the condensers, that are connected to the outlet of the catalytic converter modules, where the vapours condense into liquid and the liquids are collected in a liquid collection intermediate tanks. The liquid fuel collected into the storage contains a mixture of water and fuels having different hydrocarbon chains which may be further distilled and stored separately.

The hydrocarbons are flammable and have good calorific value of 9500 tol 0,800 kcal/kg indicating that the liquid hydrocarbon has good potential to be used as a fuel. The fuel so obtained can be used in furnaces where furnace oil is burnt. The fuel can also be used in generator sets having mixed fuel combustion option. The stored liquid fuel can be further refined to obtain the hydrocarbon factions similar to Gasoline, Kerosene, Diesel and LDO. The fluids may be distilled further in distillation columns necessary to obtain fine fractions. The fine fractions can be used as motor fuels or for other applications.

In the process of catalytic conversion, a major portion of the vapours generated are condensed into liquid fuels. However, a small portion of the gas remains uncondensed and the same is pumped into a gas storage tank through a Rotary vane blower. The non- condensable gas is reutilised in the process to fuel the gas fired IR burners thus recycling the non- industrious products of the conversion process. The operation is a continuous operation. The non-condensable gas has a calorific value of approx.5000-9500 Kca!/Kg, depending upon the feed stock used.

The discharge residue obtained from RRV is further passed through an automated segregation system to separate ferrous metal, non-ferrous metals, glass, charcoal/coke etc.

The residue after pyro-cracking is a mixture of carbonaceous material along with very minor percentages of inorganic debris. The coke is collected and pulverized. The pulverized coal is pelletized under pressure and bagged for re-use as a solid fuel. There is no solid residue discharge as an effluent from the process. The carbon residue has a calorific value of 4500 to 6000 kcals per kg. The organic carbon recovered from the process when the in-feed material is of pure organic nature, then the carbon from the process can be used for water treatment, manufacture of electrodes etc.

The hot exhaust gases trapped between the rotary reactor cum vaporizer vessel and the stationary insulated combustion chamber are released into the atmosphere after filtering the same to remove the particulate matter if any and scrubbing.

The emission parameters during the burning of gas generated from the plant shows that they do not have significant level of suspended particulate matter, sulphur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide. The comparative table of the pollutants emitted before starting the process and after completion of process is given herein below in Table 9.

The oil recovered from the process is light hydrocarbon oil which is a mixture of liquid fuels similar in properties to Gasoline, Diesel and fuel oil. Further, the fuel recovered is free from particle matter and it is clean for use as a fuel directly in generators, furnaces, marine vessels and all other places where un-distilled fuels can be used.

The properties of the mixed fuel obtained are given below in Table 1:

Table 1:

The above mixed fuel can be distilled to separate distinct fractions of light hydrocarbons such as Gasoline, Diesel, LDO, Kerosene and a small fraction of Fuel oil having a low viscosity of 7 CSt to 30 CStpp. at 25°C.

The distilled fractions of Gasoline, Diesel, Kerosene, LDO and Furnace oil have similar properties compared to regular fuels. The Combustible gas out- put has a high calorific value of 5000 to 9500 kcal/kg and can be used as a direct fuel. The gas is clean from particulate matter and can be used directly as a fuel in dual burner type burners, or regular gas burners. The gas is a mixture of Hydrogen, Hydrocarbon gas factions, nitrogen and Carbon Dioxide. The Hydrogen content in the gas is high and in the range of anywhere between 10-35% depending upon the feed stock used. In the process, the Carbon Dioxide gas is sequestered using a membrane separator and adsorbed onto a zeolite matrix.

The final fractions of fuels obtained are stored in their individual storage tanks. The fuels obtained from the plastic and MSW are given in examples 1 to 7 below.

The process is flexible enough to design the end products on-line without changing the feed design. The process is designed for the treatment of various types of carbonaceous feed material as described herein below in the examples. The process is also used for treatment of waste plastic recovered from the Municipal Waste and the MSW plastics generally contain moisture, organic matter and soil. The level of contamination is approximated to be about 20%. The process is also suitable for a dedicated feed of mixed plastics from e-waste, automobile fluff, hospital waste plastics, domestic use plastics, wrap film packaging etc.

The process is thus a zero discharge process and energy self-sufficient. The invention can transform the waste management industry into a huge fuel generation industry benefiting the industry and at the same time solving complex environmental disposal problems.

The present invention provides a method to convert carbonaceous homogeneous and/or non-homogeneous, segregated or unsegregated, wet or dry waste feed into usable combustible fuels and solid carbon, said method comprising pyro-catalytic continuous conversion of said waste feed, prior to the process, into usable combustible fuels and solid carbon using external agglomerated nano catalyst.

Further, the instant invention relates to the use of pyro-catalytic continuous process for converting homogeneous and/or non-homogeneous, segregated or unsegregated, wet or dry waste feed, prior to the process, into usable combustible fuels and solid carbon. In another embodiment, the process modules, which house the equipment, components, process sensors piping & valves, designed to carry out the process of conversion of waste material into hydrocarbon fuels is explained herein below. The plant is schematically described in Figs 1 and 2.

Accordingly, as illustrated in Fig 1, the processing plant of the present invention for the pyro-catalytic, continuous conversion of carbonaceous homogenous and/or heterogeneous waste feed into useful hydrocarbon fuels and solid carbon comprises;

a. Waste storage bin for storage of collected waste materials for the input feed; b. Hopper-Shredder (1) for shredding and sizing of input feed;

c. Indirectly heated Rotary Reactor Vaporizer (RRV) or a Rotary vaporizer (2) for reacting and vaporizing input feed;

d. A field replaceable Multifunction Cartridge (3) loaded with external agglomerated nano catalyst for pyro-catalytic cracking of vaporized input feed;

e. Condensers (4) for condensing products of pyro-catalytic cracking;

f. Centrifugal pumps (5) placed as necessary;

g. Oil storage tanks (6) for storage of said condensed products;

h. Gas booster (7);

i. Gas storage tank(8);

j. Residue cooler (9) to cool down residue released from the RRV;

k. Ferrous material separator (10);

1. Non- ferrous material separator (1 1 );

m. Inert material separators (12); and

n. Coal processing unit (13).

Plant Description:

A dumping and storage means, for collection and storage of waste material for input feed, is arranged in a pit-space made available at the site of installation of the whole plant assembly. The input waste feed is carried over conveyor systems from said dumping and storage means to a hopper shredder (1), where the input feed is dried, shredded to small pieces of about 25-50mm in size and are pushed into an extruder. The extruder is heated and acts as pre-heating system to remove moisture. In this system, the dust generated and other foreign materials such as dirt, sand etc., are not removed and the plastics are taken into the processors as they come. The conveyor is integrated with the Hopper, shredder - auger system (1) to form a single entity to minimize the size and the space requirement of the unit. The pre-heated feed material is then sent to the rotary reactor vessel (RRV) (2) or RV system for reaction and vaporization. The Shredder (1 ) has multiple shaft blades which shred the material to the requisite sizes. The shafts can be changed to adjust for the sizing of the in-feed material. In case of petroleum waste processing, the feed is passed through a Positive Displacement pump (PD) (not disclosed in figure) where the highly viscous tank bottoms sludge, bituminous material, tar sands etc. are uniformly fed in to the RRV (8) using said PD pump whose discharge can be controlled using control valves. The rotary reactor vessel (RRV) (2) is one of the key functional apparatus in the plant assembly. It performs the main function of uniformly vaporizing the homogenous and/or heterogeneous, singular or miscellaneous feed into a uniform useable vaporized feed, thus making it possible to use any versatile feedstock and carry the entire process at a relatively, overall low temperature range of 80 deg C to 450 deg C.

The RRV (2) further comprises the inner rotating drum (201), outer stationary insulated combustion chamber (202) and infrared (IR) burners (203), heating surfaces of which are on the inner surface of the insulated combustion chamber (202). The said inner rotating drum (201) and outer chamber (202) are arranged in a concentric manner with an air gap between the two. The gap between the two chambers is sealed off with an appropriate means at the shredder end to avoid loss of heat and interaction with ambient air. The inner drum (201) is mounted on a rotating drive mechanism which is enabled to assist said drum into a stable rotating motion. The inner drum (201) takes input feed from the Hopper Shredder arrangement (1). The entire RRV is mounted on hydraulically/pneumatically controlled jacks in order to assist in modulation of height of the RRV to control the residence time of reactants in the RRV (2). Exhaust means are provided at the non-shredder end enabled to assist in cleaning, scrubbing and proper disposal of hot exhaust gases being released from the air gap in the RRV (2). IR burners (203) are arranged external to the RRV (2). The heat emitting surfaces lie proximal to the burners (203), while the heat receiving surfaces are lined on the inner surface of the insulated combustion chamber (202). The IR burners (203) are, preferably, gas fed for executing combustion internally in them. Internal combustion takes place in the gas fed IR burners (203) and its externally placed IR emitters heat up and impinge heat rays on to the gas heaters on the inner surface of the insulated outer chamber (202). The said heaters heat up the air gap in the RRV (2) uniformly along the length and breadth of the RRV (2) and thus provide a conducive environment for the reaction and vaporization of the input feed to take place. On receiving sized input feed from the hopper- shredder (1) assembly into the inner rotating drum (201) of the RRV (2), the reaction and vaporization of the input feed takes place.

The inclination of the RRV(2) is maintained at a certain inclination and its rotational speed is maintained uniform to provide a specified amount of residence time and an appropriate impact of heat from the heated air gap to the input feed for the duration of its reaction and vaporization. The vaporization temperature in the RRV (2) is in the range of 80°C-450°C.

Accordingly, the rotational speed of the RRV varies between 10 rpm to 120rpm preferably between 10-60 rpm keeping in mind the nature and composition of the input feed material and the inclination of the RRV is maintained in the range 0° to 45°; preferably at 0° to 20° to ensure continuous optimum flow of feed material.

After reaction and vaporization, the vaporized input feed is passed through the Multifunction Cartridge system (3), while the solid charred residue is discharged via automated water cooled residue conveyor system to residue cooler (9) to be disposed properly.

The Multifunction Cartridge (3) system comprises of multiple multifunctional cartridges (as given in fig 4) arranged in rows, each row consisting of a series of tubes connected parallel in a single row enclosed between common inlet valve and common outlet valve. Each multifunctional cartridge is held in the tubes having common inlet manifold and common outlet manifold. The arrangement is provided with quick release couplings for easy removal or dismantling of the multifunctional cartridge while the conversion process is in progress, if necessary. Each individual multifunctional cartridge has a motorised inlet valve and a motorised outlet valve. The valves are . controlled using microprocessors. The inlet pressure sensor and the outlet pressure sensor at the inlet and outlet respectively control the opening and closing of these individual valves. The sensors monitor pressure and abnormal change in the pressure due to catalyst contamination or choking due to waxes etc. As a result, the valves are automatically shut off in case of any malfunctioning in the multifunctional cartridges and the flow of input vapours is diverted to another tube which functions in a similar way.

The multifunctional cartridges are constructed of Stainless Steel tubes, or any such high temperature bearing, corrosion resistant material, connected to common inlet manifold on one side and a common outlet manifold on the other. Both the inlet and outlet sides are equipped with a hydraulically or pneumatically controlled flow control valve, controlled via a microprocessor control. A row of the multifunctional cartridge normally consists of 7 multifunctional cartridges. There are two rows connected in parallel thus making 14 multifunctional cartridges. The diameter of said field replaceable multifunctional cartridges (3) varies from 12 mm to 77 mm. These multifunctional cartridges are individually connected to the manifold through quick release couplings. The couplings can be detached quickly for the change of the tubes while the process is in progress. This change is accomplished by the closing of valves connecting the inlet and outlet manifolds with the multifunctional cartridges. The two rows of multifunctional cartridges make one module. Several modules can be attached to each other in series through the end connectors provided on the manifolds. This increases the capacity of the multifunctional cartridges to handle larger volume of gases when large volume of in-feed material has to be processed. The catalyst modules can be added or removed as needed based on the site requirement. A stainless steel holder tube holds the catalyst composition. The tube is sealed at both ends by inlet pressure-tight seal and outlet pressure-tight seal. Perforated media support hold the lower segment of the multifunctional cartridge wherein the multifunction catalyst bed facilitates conversion of the vapored input feed stock to combustible hydrocarbon fuels. Perforated media support hold the middle segment of the multifunctional cartridge wherein gas cleaning particulate media helps cleaning of the vapored gas. Perforated media support and outlet pressure-tight seal hold the upper segment of the multifunctional cartridge wherein gas scrubbing media facilitates scrubbing of the intermediate gas to result into a refined product of low molecular weight industrious hydrocarbon fuels and condensable or non-condensable combustible gases. Thus there is no further post-processing of the output required.

The multifunctional cartridges are loaded with a pre-designated agglomerated nano- catalyst, which is a nano structure catalyst having nano-particles of metal oxide, metal hydroxides of the group 4 metals from period 4 and Block D of the Periodic table. The nano particles, having a size of 20 to 100 nano-meters are agglomerated to form granules in the range 100-500 microns, having a specific gravity of 4.2-5, are placed inside the catalytic converter tubes with a specific column thickness. The thickness of the catalyst column in the multifunctional cartridges determines the output product composition. The thicker the column, the lighter fractions or combustible gases in the output and the thinner the column width, the higher viscosity fuels will be derived. Thus, the catalyst column thickness is a critical function in the process. The thickness of catalyst bed can be varies in the range of 1 cm to 100 cm and beyond.

Any choking of the catalyst increases the pressure inside the multifunctional cartridge and is monitored by the sensors. In case of any choking of the catalyst, the said sensors send a signal to the microprocessor which immediately redirects the flow of the vaporised input feed to the other idle multifunctional cartridge by opening its valves while shutting off the valves at the choked multifunctional cartridge. This operation is done automatically and the microprocessor indication of a choked multifunctional cartridge then leads to the replacement of the multifunctional cartridge by an operator. The multifunctional cartridge tubes of the multifunctional cartridge system (3) may be immersed in a cooling medium like water in order to stabilize the temperatures if required. Most generally, air cooling is sufficient to keep the catalyst tubes within the temperature limits for easy removal of the tubes without scalding its operator. The dimensions of the tubes in the multifunctional cartridge system (3) are flexible and the diameter of the multifunctional cartridges may vary from 12mm to 77mm depending upon the volume of the vaporized input expected to be cracked.

The catalyst is a single or multi-layered fixed bed reactor thereby allowing the reuse of the catalyst. Also, since the catalyst is an external catalyst, there is no direct contact with the feed material thus eliminating catalyst degradation and increasing the life of the catalyst.

The agglomerated nano catalyst acts as a pyro-catalyst at a temperature in the range of 10-80°C and can be effective even in the temperature range of 10°-500°C, preferably at a temperature of 30°C to 90°C and de-polymerizes the higher molecular weight molecules of polymers made from hydrocarbons/petrochemicals. The process is done at atmospheric pressures and the process is not pressurized. There is no vacuum applied to the process. Thus, the conditions of processing are unique that the temperature of conversion is low and happens under atmospheric pressure conditions. Further, the process takes place in absence of oxygen.

The single or multilayered agglomerated nano catalyst loaded in multifunctional cartridges is represented by a general formula;

AxByOz/Qn. (OH)m

where, 'A' represents transition element selected from Ti, Mn, Cr, Fe, Ni, Nb, Mo, Zr, Hf, Ta, Zn, either alone or mixture thereof in metallic or oxide or as hydroxides; 'B' represents rare earth elements of group III B including the lanthanide series, and actinide series comprising the 'f-block' selected from Sc, Yt, La, Ce, Nd, Pr, Th either alone or mixtures thereof in metallic or oxide or as hydroxides;

'x' is the number in the range of about 0-2; 'y' is the number in the range of about 0-2;

'm' is the number in the range of about 0-4; 'n' is the number 0, 1 ;

'z' is the number of oxygen atoms needed to fulfill the requirements of the elements possible;

'Q' represents montmorillonate clay or its derivatives; and optionally along with an organic binder selected from Titanium Tetraflouride, ethylene glycol, ethylene glycol monomethylether (EGME), methyl cellulose, tetrafloroethylyne, poly(diallyl- dimethylammonium, L-lysine, L-proline, Phenolics, Ethenol homoPolymers; preferably Ethenol homoPolymers.

In an embodiment, the catalyst used for the conversion of carbonaceous feed material into usable hydrocarbon fuel and solid carbon selected from; 1. 50% by weight element 'A' as oxide, 25% by weight element 'B' in metallic form and 25% by weight montmorillonate clay (Q);

2. 30% by weight element 'A' as hydroxide, 10% by weight binder and 60% by weight element 'A' as its oxide;

3. 12% by weight element 'B' in metallic form and 88% by weight montmorillonate clay or its derivatives (Q);

4. 6% by weight element 'B' in metallic form, 44% by weight montmorillonate clay or its derivatives (Q), 30% by weight element 'A' as oxide, 1 5% by weight element 'A' as hydroxide and 5% by weight binder; or

5. Nanoparticles of element 'A' as oxide or hydroxide particularly 35% by weight of titanium hydroxide and 65% by weight of titanium oxide.

In a preferred embodiment, the catalyst composition is selected from the following;

a. The catalyst type IA consisting of 30% by weight of titanium hydroxide, 10% by weight organic binder and 60% by weight of titanium oxide.

b. The catalyst type IB consists of 12% by weight of lanthanum and 88% by weight montmorillonate clay or its derivatives.

c. The catalyst type IC consisting of 6%by weight of Lanthanum, 44%by weight montmorillonate clay or its derivatives, 30% by weight titanium oxide, 15% by weight titanium hydroxide and 5% by weight Ethenol homoPolymers as organic binder.

The gas generated during pyro-cracking is a mixture of hydrogen, low molecular weight hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide. Due to presence of hydrogen and hydrocarbons this gas burns smoothly with clear blue flame.

The cracked vapours from the multifunction cartridge system are then passed through a condenser (4)Γ The condensers are used to liquefy the cracked vapours emanating from the multifunctional cartridge (3) system. The condensers are connected to the common outlet of the multifunction cartridge (3) system to collect the resultant vapours. The said vapours pass through a series of tubes which are cooled with water flowing around them. The exchanges thus have the cooling medium outside whereas the gas flows from inside the tubes. The vapours then condense into a liquid and the liquids are collected in liquid collection intermediate tanks. The condenser can be of a heat exchanger design having fin cooling also. The condenser is connected to a source of water which is generally a cooling tower-reservoir as illustrated by (30). The hot water from the outlet in the condenser (302) is pumped back to the cooling tower for cooling the water and the water is recirculated through a standard pumping system into the condenser through inlet (301 ). The fuel obtained after condensation is stored in intermediate oil storage tank (6) via centrifugal pumps (5). This fuel may be further distilled and stored separately.

The gases, obtained from multifunction cartridge (3) system, which cannot be condensed, are drawn into the gas storage tank (8) via gas booster pump (7). This gas stored in the gas storage tank (8) is re-utilised in the plant assembly to fuel the gas fired IR burners (203), thus recycling the non-industrious products of the conversion process. The non- condensable gases may also be used as fuel to run a generator to produce power for the plant. Generally, a major portion of the requisite power can be obtained by using these non-condensable gases. The gas storage tank (8) is equipped with flash arresters, Non- Return Valves and a microprocessor controlled discharge valve. The discharge valve is operated by a microprocessor and operates depending upon the temperature inside the RRV (2). The temperature sensors inside the RRV send a signal to the microprocessor when the temperature inside the vessel is less than the requisite temperature and the microprocessor opens the gas discharge valve and gas is allowed to flow to the burners (203) which ignite the gas using an automatic ignition system. Once the temperature reaches the set levels, the sensors convey to the microprocessor which then shuts off the gas discharge valve and cuts of the flow of gas to the burners. The operation is monitored and controlled by the microprocessor continuously. The said non-condensable gas has a calorific value of app 5000 - 9500 K.Cal/Kg.

The discharge from the RRV (2) after vaporization is a residue. The residue is generally char/coke which is dry, powdery in nature unlike in other processes. The dry powdery material is conveyed to one end of the RRV vessels. The residue is discharged automatically using a timed rotary discharge valve embedded in the RRV (2). The rotary discharge valve is a microprocessor controlled discharge valve which is programmed to open and close at set time intervals. At designed time intervals, the rotary valve opens and discharges the accumulated residue into a residue cooler (9) auger. The auger conveyor is water cooled. The residue coming out of the reactors is hot and it is susceptible to catch fire and turn into cinder/ash. In order to prevent such accidents, the auger-conveyor is cooled by water flowing inside a jacket around the conveyor. The residue discharged from the RRV (2) is thus made safe to handle and retain its form. The coke residue from the process is found to have a calorific value of 4500 to 6000 cal/ g.

The residue from the discharge of the process is then passed through an automated segregation system. Ferrous material (101) is segregated by the ferrous material separator (10) and collected in a ferrous material bin (102) and stored (103). Non-ferrous materials (1 1 1) are separated by the non-ferrous separator (1 1 ) and collected in its bin ( 1 12) and stored (1 13). Likewise, glass and optically sensitive materials are removed using inert material separator (12). It is then collected in the bin (122) and stored (123). The coke separator (13) separates coke and other charred carbon residue (131 ) pulverizes it into a powder in a coal grinder (132) and then pelletized into blocks, bricks or cylindrical pellets in a hydraulic palletisation press/ pelletizer (133). The pellets are then bagged in a bagging system (134) and are stored ( 135) for dispatch.

There is no solid residue discharge as an effluent from the process. The carbon residue has a calorific value of 4500 to 6000 kcals per kg. The organic carbon recovered from the process when the in-feed material is of pure organic nature, then the carbon from the process can be used for water treatment, manufacture of electrodes etc.

The hot exhaust gases trapped between the rotary reactor cum vaporizer vessel (2) and the stationary insulated combustion chamber (202) are released into the atmosphere after filtering the same to remove the particulate matter if any and scrubbing.

The emission parameters during the burning of gas generated from the plant shows that they do not have significant level of suspended particulate matter, sulphur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide. The comparative table of the pollutants emitted before starting the process and after completion of process is given herein below in Table 6.

The oil recovered from the process is light hydrocarbon oil which is a mixture of liquid fuels similar in properties to Gasoline, Diesel and fuel oil. Further, the fuel recovered is free from particle matter and it is clean for use as a fuel directly in generators, furnaces, marine vessels and all other places where un-distilled fuels can be used.

Figure 2 illustrates the details of the process carried out in the plant assembly as described herein above.

Figure 3 illustrates an embodiment of the present plant assembly in its 3d representation. The figure illustrates the hopper-shredder assembly connected to the RRV. The vaporised feed from the RRV is taken into a module of the multifunctional cartridge system. The cracked products are further taken into a condenser for cooling and distillation, if necessary. The cooling tower, means for non-combustible gas management and other remaining paraphernalia is not shown in the said figure to maintain simplicity of understanding of the representation. The electronic control panel of the plant assembly, rotating and inclination mechanisms of the RRV can also be seen.

It may be appreciated that the residue discharge system remains common to any and all the in-feed materials as stated above.

Final Products

The liquid fuel collected into the storage contains a mixture of fuels having different hydrocarbon chains. In case, the user wishes to use this as a fuel, the same can be used. The fuel is good for use in furnaces where furnace oil is burnt. The fuel can also be used in generator sets having mixed fuel combustion option.

However, the stored liquid fuel can be further refined to obtain the hydrocarbon factions similar to Gasoline, Kerosene, Diesel and LDO. The plant has the distillation columns necessary to obtain these fine factions. The fine factions can be used as motor fuels or for other applications.

Final Product Storage: The final fractions of fuels obtained are stored in their individual storage tanks. The present invention provides a method to convert carbonaceous homogeneous and/or non-homogeneous, segregated or unsegregated, wet or dry waste feed into usable combustible fuels and solid carbon, wherein said method comprises pyro-catalytic continuous conversion of said waste feed, prior to the process, into usable combustible fuels and solid carbon using external agglomerated nano catalyst.

Further, the instant invention relates to the use of the processing plant (Fig 1 ) and catalyst thereof for pyro-catalytic continuous conversion of said carbonaceous homogeneous and/or non-homogeneous, segregated or unsegregated, wet or dry waste feed, prior to the process, into usable combustible fuels and solid carbon.

Advantages of the process:

• The process is a low temperature, in the range of 80°C -450°C, Pyro-catalytic process to convert varied waste materials into usable combustible fuels either in the form of a gas, liquid fuel or a solid fuel or a combination of the three phases of gas, liquid and solid.

• The process is conducted at atmospheric pressure and the reactor is not pressurized.

• The process consists of processing equipment, an external heterogeneous catalyst and a heating arrangement utilizing the gases developed by the process to impart energy to the process.

• The process can convert homogeneous or heterogeneous waste materials which need not be cleaned prior to conversion. The process can process dirty, contaminated, comingled, un-segregated or segregated, wet or dry waste materials as they come without prior cleaning and pre-treatment.

• The process is energy self-efficient, acts as a zero discharge process and economical.

• The process system consists of a water recovery, filtration system. The recovered water from the process is utilized as a cooling medium for the heat exchangers. There is no effluent discharge from the system.

• The catalyst activity temperature is in the range of 10°C-80°C.

• The process does not lead to air, water or land pollution. • The process parameters are controlled using an advanced PLC systems thus making the process safe. The process of the current invention can transform the waste management industry into a huge fuel generation industry benefiting the industry and at the same time solving complex environmental disposal problems.

Further, the processing plant is designed using a modular concept for providing flexibility in operations and production. The plant is flexible enough to derive the end products online without changing the feed design. The plant is designed for the treatment of various types of carbonaceous feed material as described herein above in the examples. The plant is also used for treatment of waste plastic recovered from the Municipal Waste and the MSW plastics generally contain moisture, organic matter and soil. The level of contamination is approximated to be about 20%. The plant is also suitable for a dedicated feed of mixed plastics from e-waste, automobile fluff, hospital waste plastics, domestic use plastics, wrap film packaging etc. It may be appreciated by a person skilled in the art that the embodiments and figures described herein above are exemplary and may be modified suitably, within the scope of the present invention, to meet the needs of an application or related constraints with the working of the present invention. The plant is thus suited for a zero discharge process and is energy self-sufficient. The invention can transform the waste management industry into a huge fuel generation industry benefiting the industry and at the same time solving complex environmental disposal problems.

Output Yield Data

The major operational parameters and product yields generated by the process plant of the instant invention consisting of converting raw feed selected from assorted waste plastic are given in Table 2 below. The evolved vapors are condensed to collect gas and liquid products.

Table 2:

Raw feed Assorted waste plastic

Catalyst Heterogeneous

Temperature 80-450°C

Pressure Atmospheric Process Continuous

Product yields Quantity (wt%)

Gas 8-12

Liquid hydrocarbons 60-80

Crude residue 10-12

Product yield slightly varies depending upon the raw material used.

The evolved gas consists of mixed factions of Methane, Ethane, Ethylene, Propane, Propylene, Iso-butane, n-Butane, unsaturated factions in the C4 and C5 range etc.

Typical analysis of the liquid product is given in Table 3:

Table 3:

The following examples, which include preferred embodiments, will serve to illustrate the practice of this invention, it being understood that the particulars shown are by way of examples and for purpose of illustrative discussion of preferred embodiments of the invention only and are not limiting the scope of the invention.

Examples:

Example 1:

Input feed: Waste plastic

20 kgs of shredded waste plastic is passed into the rotary reactor vaporizer and heated indirectly till the temperature of the RRV is 350°C. The vaporized feed material is polycracked in multifunctional cartridge system loaded with the catalyst of type IA or IB or IC in the absence of oxygen at a temperature of 350°C. The plastics are converted completely into value added fuel products as given in Table 4:

The characteristics of the mixed fuel recovered from plastic waste. (Example based on actual values); Table 4

Example 2:

Input feed: Municipal Solid waste(MSW).

Catalyst: type IA and type IB

Polycrack temperature: 22°C- 450°C

Table 5: Catalytic Cracking testing with Municipal Solid waste (MSW).

Example 3:

Input feed: Various feed stocks

Catalyst: Type IA and IC

Polycrack temperature: 28°C- 450°C

Table 6: Catalytic Cracking testing with various feed stocks:

Example 4:

Input feed: Various feed stocks

Catalyst: Type IA and IC

Polycrack temperature: 19°C- 450°C

Table 7: Catalytic Cracking testing with various feed stocks:

Example 5:

Input feed: Polythene carry bags.

Catalyst: Type IA, IB and IC

Polycrack Temperature: 19°C- 450°C

Table 7: Catalytic Cracking testing with polythene carry bags Polythene Carry bags 2.00 22 444 1 0.3 0.7 0 50.00% 15.00% 35.00% 0.00%

Waste plastic bottles 10.00 25 450 2.15 1.65 6.2 0 21.50% 16.50% 62.00% 0.00%

Mix shreddered plastic 2 30 450 1.4 0.44 0.16 0 70.00% 22.00% 8.00% 0.00%

3-7 mixed plastics 8.5 30 450 4.2 0.9 3.4 0 49.41% 10.59% 40.00% 0.00%

CD's 2.1 30 450 1.05 0.35 0.7 0 50.00% 16.67% 33.33% 0.00%

Electronica Plastics 2 30 450 1.04 0.39 0.57 0 52.00% 19.50% 28.50% 0.00%

Electronics Plastics 2 30 450 1.3 0.05 0.65 0 65.00% 2.50% 32.50% 0.00%

Electronica Plastics 2 30 450 0.8 0.39 0.81 0 40.00% 19.50% 40.50% 0.00%

Films AND Plastics 1.5 30 450 0.64 0.86 0 0 42.67% 57.33% 0.00% 0.00%

Fluff material 2 30 450 0.36 0.08 1.56 0 18.00% 4.00% 78.00% 0.00%

Folie + qranulaat 2 30 450 0.4 1.343 0.257 0 20.00% 67.15% 12.85% 0.00%

Folie + qranulaat 2 30 450 0.1 1.704 0.196 0 5.00% 85.20% 9.80% 0.00%

Folie + qranulaat 2 30 450 0.4 1.343 0.257 0 20.00% 67.15% 12.85% 0.00%

Gamesa car plastics 3 30 450 0.96 0.884 1.156 0 32.00% 29.47% 38.53% 0.00%

Gamesa car plastics 3 30 450 0.96 0.884 1.156 0 32.00% 29.47% 38.53% 0.00%

Guddi 2.7 30 450 1.2 0.42 1.08 0 44.44% 15.56% 40.00% 0.00%

H M local 4.46 30 450 1.6 1.92 0.94 0 35.87% 43.05% 21.08% 0.00%

HDPE 9 30 450 7.1 0.55 1.35 0 78.89% 6.11% 15.00% 0.00%

HDPP-A 1.6 30 450 0.76 0.55 0.29 0 47.50% 34.38% 18.13% 0.00%

HDPP-A 1.6 30 450 0.48 0.8 0.32 0 30.00% 50.00% 20.00% 0.00%

Kali vapsi 2.08 30 450 1.1 0.4 0.58 0 52.88% 19.23% 27.88% 0.00%

L D Gulla 5 30 450 1.52 1.28 2.2 0 30.40% 25.60% 44.00% 0.00%

Ldpe film 6 30 450 3.7 1.4 0.9 0 61.67% 23.33% 15.00% 0.00%

LDPE Mix 1.6 30 450 1 0.21 0.39 0 62.50% 13.13% 24.38% 0.00% mix plastic 2 2 30 450 1.02 0.666 0.514 0 46.36% 30.27% 23.36% 0.00%

Mix Plastics 2 30 450 0.64 0.12 1.24 0 32.00% 6.00% 62.00% 0.00%

Mix Shreddered Plastic 3 30 450 2.32 0.46 0.22 0 77.33% 15.33% 7.33% 0.00%

Mix shreddered Plastic 2 30 450 1.77 0.23 0 0 88.50% 11.50% 0.00% 0.00%

Mix shreddered Plastic +

Ibt pet 2 30 450 1.6 0.25 0.15 0 80.00% 12.50% 7.50% 0.00%

Mix shreddered plastic +

packadqe plastic 2 30 450 1.3 0.46 0.24 0 65.00% 23.00% 12.00% 0.00%

Mix shredds 3.26 30 450 1.04 1.06 1.16 0 31.90% 32.52% 35.58% 0.00%

Mix van schoon pp en PE

E1 10121 1.6 30 450 1.421 0.079 0.1 0 88.81% 4.94% 6.25% 0.00%

Mix van schoon pp en PE

E1 10121 1.6 30 450 1.4 0.09 0.11 0 87.50% 5.63% 6.88% 0.00%

Mixed plastics and bottles 2 30 450 0.32 1.38 0.3 0 16.00% 69.00% 15.00% 0.00%

Mixed plastics and Films 2 30 450 1.44 0.36 0.2 0 72.00% 18.00% 10.00% 0.00%

Mixed plastics with a lot

of PET 2 30 450 0 52 1.13 0.35 0 26.00% 56.50% 17.50% 0.00%

Nylon 6 5 30 450 0.975 2.025 2 0 19.50% 40.50% 40.00% 0.00%

P.P. Gulla with Calcium 4.48 30 450 0.8 1.68 2 0 17.86% 37.50% 44.64% 0.00%

PE - Blau 0.7 30 450 0.56 0.04 0.1 0 80.00% 5.71% 14.29% 0.00%

PET 2 30 450 0.08 1.32 0.6 0 4.00% 66.00% 30.00% 0.00%

Plastic 1.6 30 450 1.28 0.22 0.1 0 80.00% 13.75% 6.25% 0.00%

Plastic 1.6 30 450 1.4 0.09 0.11 0 87.50% 5.63% 6.88% 0.00%

Plastic 1.6 30 450 1 0.21 0.39 0 62.50% 13.13% 24.38% 0.00%

Plastic 1.6 30 450 0.48 0.8 0.32 0 30.00% 50.00% 20.00% 0.00%

Plastic 1.6 30 450 0.76 0.55 0.29 0 47.50% 34.38% 18.13% 0.00%

Plastic 2.125 30 450 1.625 0.5 0 0 76.47% 23.53% 0.00% 0.00%

Plastic 3 30 450 1.614 0.918 0.468 0 53.80% 30.60% 15.60% 0.00%

Plastic 1 8 30 450 0.179 0.661 0 96 0 9.94% 36.72% 53.33% 0.00%

Plastic 1.944 30 450 0.36 0.554 1.03 0 18.52% 28.50% 52.98% 0.00%

Plastic 0.7 30 450 0.56 0.04 0.1 0 80.00% 5.71% 14.29% 0.00%

Plastic 2 30 450 0.52 0.42 1.06 0 26.00% 21.00% 53.00% 0.00%

Plastic 2.1 30 450 0.218 0.682 1.2 0 10.38% 32.48% 57.14% 0.00%

Plastic Cartridges 2.027 30 450 0.323 0.794 0.91 0 15.93% 39.17% 44.89% 0.00%

PP . HDPE , PE 2 30 450 1.5 0.5 0 0 75.00% 25.00% 0.00% 0.00%

PP lalco, shredded light

plastics 2 30 450 0.182 1.218 0.6 0 9.10% 60.90% 30.00% 0.00% shredderd plastic

qildenhaus 2 30 450 1.78 0.08 0.14 0 89.00% 4.00% 7.00% 0.00% shreddered plastic

qildenhaus 2 30 450 1.78 0.22 0 0 89.00% 11.00% 0.00% 0.00%

Teflon 2.54 30 450 0.13 1.085 1.325 0 S.12%1 42.72% 52.17% 0.00% Example 6:

Input feed: Various feed material

Catalyst: Type IA, IB and IC

Polycrack Temperature: 21°C- 450°C

Table 8: Catalytic Cracking testing with various feed material

Example 7: Emission data of the pollutants before and after the process is given in Table 9 below:

SI. Pollutant UOM Industrial, Residential, Before ■ After No. Rural and other Area starting . Completion timits as per Notification process of Process dated 18/09/2009

1 Sulphur Dioxide (SO ₂ ) pg/m ³ 80 12 13

2 Nitrogen Dioxide (N0 ₂ ) pg/m ³ 80 25 25

3 Particulate Matter PMi ₀ pg/m ³ 100 35 36

4 Particulate Matter PM _{2 5} pg/m ³ 60 15 20

5 Ozone (0 ₃ ) pg/m ³ 180 ND ND

6 Lead (Pb) pg/m ^' * 1.6 . <0. 1 <0.1

7 Carbon Monoxide (CO) mg/rn ³ 04 2 2

8 Ammonia (NH ₃ ) pg/m ³ 400 < 50 < 50

9 Benzene (C ₆ H ₆ ) pg/m ³ 05 < 1 < 1

10 Arsenic (As) ng/m ³ 06 <2 < 2

11 Nickel (Ni) ng/m ³ 20 < 2 < 2

Example 9: The average UOM (%v/v) of various types of waste processed are given below in Table 11:

SI. Type of Waste Processed 1 ^st 2

Properties UOM Average No. with date Sample Sample

Hydrogen % v/v 20.2 30.6 25.4

Methane % v/v 4.0 3.5 3.8

MSW C ₂ s % v/v 0.3 1.2 0.7

1

13/05/2010 Higher HC % v/v <0.1 <0.1 <0.1

Carbon Monoxide % v/v <0.1 <0.1 <0.1

Carbon Dioxide % v/v 75.5 64.7 70.1

Hydrogen % v/v 26. 1 50.7 38.4

Methane % v/v 5.9 2.7 . 4.3

MSW Qs % v/v 0.4 1.3 0.9

2

18/05/2010 Higher HC % v/v <0. 1 < 0.1 <0.1

Carbon Monoxide % v/v <0.1 < 0.1 <0.1

Carbon Dioxide % v/v 67.6 45.3 56.4

Hydrogen % v/v 24.2 38.8 31.5

Methane % v/v 4.8 2.8 3.8

MSW C ₂ s % v/v 0.4 0.2 0.3

3

19/05/2010 Higher HC % v/v <0.1 <0.1 <0.1

Carbon Monoxide % v/v <0.1 <0.1 <0.1

Carbon Dioxide % v/v 70.6 58.2 64.4

Hydrogen % v/v 30.4 36.8 33.6

Methane % v/v 5.2 4.0 4.6

MSW C ₂ s % v/v 0.6 0.8 0.7

4

20/05/2010 Higher HC % v/v <0.1 <0.1 <0.1

Carbon Monoxide % v/v <0.1 <0.1 <0.1

Carbon Dioxide % v/v 63.8 58.4 61.1

Hydrogen % v/v 40.0 37.0 38.5

Methane % v/v 8.5 6.0 7.3

Plastic waste C ₂ s % v/v 0.8 2-0 1.4

5

23/05/2010 Higher HC % v/v <0.1 : <0.1 <0.1

Carbon Monoxide % v/v <0.1 <0. 1 <0.1

Carbon Dioxide % v/v 50.7 55.0 52.8