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NWP Global Registry of Apprentice Ecologists - St. Peters, Richmond County, Nova Scotia, Canada

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St. Peters, Richmond County, Nova Scotia, Canada
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christoph18



Registered: December 2011
City/Town/Province: St. Peters/ Nova Scotia
Posts: 1
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Getting involved in a waste clean up in a certain area in the community by throwing waste in the trash or recycling bin can be a superior experience. Although most forms of waste can be effectively recycled, most of the time not all concerns can be met. Some of these wastes such as scrap tires, which cannot be eliminated as safely or effectively as other forms of waste and might just end up landing on a landfill or even a forest somewhere, which I have seen countless times. Let us cut to the facts, not enough is currently being done by the government to take care of situations that could be addressed with technology already available. My name is Christoph and I live in St. Peters, Nova Scotia which is located in eastern Canada, which is the location of where I have conducted my project. I live out in the country and although many people may consider these small isolated towns or the environment around them as unspoiled, they could not be more wrong. Tires for example are significantly piling up not only in landfills, but also all over beautiful scenic environments that should in no way see abuse like this. Tires not only act as breeding sites for pesky insects but also are potentially dangerous sites for widespread fires. Large pileups of tires could easily trigger large fires that spread very quickly and are extremely difficult to put out. It is also commonly known that tires will not decompose naturally over time. Our planet is a wonderful phenomenon and few of its kind may potentially exist in our universe. Humans are getting greedier by the minute by only caring about themselves and living the logic that, “I don’t really care because I’ll be dead by the time environmental issues may become a global problem”. Are you serious? How egoistic can people be to see their grandchildren suffer under their own actions? I have really had enough with no one taking the lead in my highschool in terms of environmental responsibility so I have decided to participate in the Apprentice Ecologist project to help raise awareness about what can be done to reverse these vicious environmental problems. In my free time I have collected many tires and did quite a bit of research of what is possible to take care of such problems. I have always had a thirst for taking the lead on an ongoing issue such as raising awareness about aids or volunteering for seniors in the community. However, this was a different type of challenge and it required critical thinking and logic. Four months ago, I had started getting involved in my own waste management project where I had set out to build my first prototype for a tire pyrolysis oil producing mechanism, which could effectively turn tires into a fuel very similar to diesel. Not only would the products yield a diesel type fuel, but also products such as charcoal. I had decided to start with a small-scale version first to determine whether my design would actually end up producing this type of diesel fuel before I started building something larger. The size of the mechanism would make it easier to display and test, while still showing a positive influence toward a cleaner environment.
For as long as I could ever remember, I could not stand to simply sit around and waste my time doing things that would not enhance my own quality of life or someone else’s. I have always had a high academic standing in school with my GPA never falling below ninety percent. When I see that problems may arise in certain areas I try my best to be resourceful in attempt to counteract or eliminate these issues.
There are a lot of car repair shops around my area and I have noticed not only a buildup of tires at local landfills, but on my own land as well from people carelessly throwing away their scrap tires. I found myself trying to clean up my property every month and always found tires somewhere. I decided to do some research on what is currently being done about tire disposal and found some sources talking about using pyrolysis to recycle tires. After some more research I found sources talking about a reusable energy mechanism that has the ability to turn scrap tires into tire pyrolysis oil (TPO) which is a type of fuel that has properties very similar and almost identical to diesel fuel. I did some research on how tires can be reused and arrived at the idea of the possibility of making TPO which could potentially power a diesel engine or be used as furnace oil for heat energy. Although this type of technology exists and people have successfully created similar mechanisms before I started building mine, everyone’s method and design, as is my own, is unique. I had no intentions of plagiarizing by pulling a plan off the internet and that is why I designed my own unique mechanism with most the parts coming from junkyards, which is also a form of recycling unwanted parts, that may otherwise end up in a natural environment such as a forest. Nevertheless, there is no exact process or set materials used to make this diesel like fuel on the internet and I challenge anyone to try and find one. This is what made this project so challenging, as I had to design my mechanism from scratch. The only thing that I really had to work with was the theory of pyrolysis (the decomposition of a material using heat in the absence of oxygen). Using logic and initiative, the opportunity of being resourceful and correlating the theory of how Pyrolysis works with a corresponding design seemed plausible. The only problem was that it was more or less an all or none project. This is because I had no idea if my logic in understanding the process of pyrolysis would be able to produce an effective design that would ultimately produce TPO. Nevertheless, I chose to additionally use this project as my science fair project despite the risk of my design not working at all. After a while of trying to meet ends here and there, I soon started converting my designs into reality. I started gathering parts from a local junkyard and bought other specific parts such as high temperature sealant, gate valves, t-sections etc from certain distributors. It took about another month and a half until I was done with assembly. Excitingly the reactor (where the tires are held and heated) reaches the temperature required for thermal decomposition from the heat that the combustion of propane releases, which takes place just below the reactor just outside of its outer wall. I also incorporated another recycling feature in the mechanism to recycle waste gases produced in this process by also combusting them at the site of propane combustion. I am not quite sure what type of hydrocarbons make up this waste gas but I am guessing that they a short chain hydrocarbons such as methane or ethane. For the reactor to reach operating temperature effectively, it is essential to keep the heat in contact with the outer wall of the reactor for as long as possible. This is why I placed the reactor in a larger iron pipe (insulated with fiberglass and aluminum foil) that has an exhaust at the very top, which ensures that the hot air released from the combustion of propane and the waste gas, moves up along the outer wall of the reactor through suction created by the exhaust. The resulting gas from the thermally decomposed tires inside the reactor moves out through the gas outlet from the reactor towards a water-cooled condenser where the gas condenses leaving TPO in a collection tank. However, not all of the gas condenses which is why I built a waste gas line to divert the gas back down to the site of propane combustion so it can be reused in heating up the reactor. One must not necessarily use propane to heat up the reactor; wood, oil, electricity or coal could also be used as a heat source. Another outlet leaving the reactor incorporates room for a temperature gauge, pressure gauge and an outlet for excess water steam created by initial release of water from the used motor oil that is mixed in with the tires in the reactor. Not only does this increase the speed at which the pyrolysis process takes place since it efficiently allows the tires to take up heat at a faster rate, but also acts as a form of recycling a waste product. Normally used motor oil may be stored in iron barrels that may eventually rust and leak out the waste oil, harming plant and animal life. Even humans might be affected if oil spills occur in a certain area, because poisonous compounds from the oil enter the food chain. To help prevent this, every time I recycle old tires with my process I utilize used oil stored in the barrels outside of car shops.
I have also built in a valve along this outlet that can be turned on immediately to release a buildup of pressure if the gas outlet happened to clog up for some reason, although this is very unlikely. If one wanted to increase the safety of the mechanism in the case of accidental human error, an automatic pressure relief valve would be advisable.
This process entire process usually takes about two and a half hours to run to completion if an operating temperature of approximately 400-450 degrees Celsius is reached. The duration of the process also depends on how much scrap tires are put into the reactor and how much used motor oil is poured in with the tires (ensure proper heat dispersion among tires at a faster rate). To make certain that the decomposition occurs safely, I monitor the entire process using a temperature and pressure gauge. Due to my mechanism being only a small scale version of what I plan on building in the near future, it can only thermally decompose approximately 500 grams of scrap tires at a time. However, over the last month I have already recycled 30 scrap tires through continuous use of my mechanism! I have used the resulting TPO in my heating furnace in my house. I am not sure about the exact quality of the TPO produced but I do know that its properties must be very similar to diesel because it is a very effective source of energy when burned. Normal oil does not ignite when lit on fire with a match and the TPO fuel I have produced does. However since the quality is not known, I am going to continue using it as heating oil not as diesel in my car. I soon plan on building a larger version that has the ability to turn 10 scrap tires into TPO at a time enabling myself to recycle a large number of tires everyday so I can help get them off landfills and other environments. I will also be able to pick up larger quantities of waste oil from barrels around the community to recycle in my mechanism. The benefits do not stop here, nothing in my process is left over as toxic waste and everything is reused. The other product of my mechanism is pure charcoal that is left over in the reactor after the reaction runs to completion, which I always use for bonfires when my friends come over.
This Apprentice Ecologist Project has been an awesome learning experience and I have become so much more resourceful after making my own designs and conducting my own tests. Although I have always thought about going into engineering, I have chosen to go for a Bachelor of Science degree first to engage in a wider variety of content and to possibly major in Chemistry or Biology. I feel proud of myself for participating in the Apprentice Ecologists Project because it has given me initiative to build my very first environmentally friendly small-scale mechanism for recycling petroleum-based products which would normally pile up on landfills. I will be presenting the process and my mechanism at a local science fair in my region in hopes of making it to regional’s and maybe even further. I hope that my entrepreneurial talent, my concern for cleaning up the environment and all my hard work will be recognized and valued. I believe that confidently engaging in an environmentally friendly project like my own and succeeding by oneself to effectively display what types of changes are more urgently required on this planet, can really make a difference in dispersing the positive awareness about preserving nature in local communities.
Date: December 31, 2011 Views: 5591 File size: 22.3kb, 201.3kb : 480 x 640
Hours Volunteered: 350
Volunteers: 1
Authors Age & Age Range of Volunteers: 17
Trash Removed/Recycled from Environment (kg): 169.29
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