Ep. 6 - Making a Simple Pyrolysis Reactor

[@Deja117]

This channel definitely has a good foundation. The editing is good, the information is great, good back and forth between you both, and overall I love it. The only points I can make, is that the audio had no background noise in parts, which can oddly enough make it sound a little odd at times (such as the SF Travis and Company spot, some music in the background may have been a nice touch there). The video orientation also felt a tiny bit odd, if you're doing landscape, go landscape. You can crop it or blur stuff fairly easily later. I'm not saying this to be difficult or anything, it's just a few things I've picked up on from doom scrolling through KZbin. It was still a really epic video! I can't wait to see how that tire turns out. ;)

[@TheLittleIdeasllc]

@@Deja117 Awesome feedback, thank you! We are definitely learning a lot and are continually improving. The orientation is definitely not a mistake we want to make again and you’re 100% correct about the need for background music in those spots. You’re not being difficult, it’s nice to have an objective view so we can give you all better videos in the future. Thank you, again!

[@jordanturner7821]

You guys are adorable. I like this channel. Never seen it before. Hope God makes things awesome for you in perpetuity.

[@TheLittleIdeasllc]

@@jordanturner7821 Thank you so much! ❤️

[@timothygorman2846]

As someone who has spent months trying to build a working pyrolysis chamber, I wanted to make some recommendations. Pyrolysis can require temperatures in excess of the melting point of aluminum, so i would recommend cast iron or stainless steel. Also, the lid seal seems to be the most challenging aspect of making a DIY pyrolysis chamber. You will have pressure build up, unless you plan to flare your gaseous product, and most silicone seals won't handle the heat of pyrolysis. You don't want the pyrolysis products leaking out through your lid, especially if you are running your chamber in an oven/kiln/furnace, because they will ignite and create a runaway fire, and the uncombusted and incompletely combusted products are very unhealthy to breath. You can make a seal out ofred rtv silicone, but it can only withstand up to the low to mid-range of pyrolysis temperatures. I found a product that can withstand up to 800 F, it's a siliconized latex made by rutland. Pyrolysis starts at around 200c (almosf 400 F) and you can get a pretty complete pyrolysis reaction at around 600C (about 850F). Temperature and pressure are adjusted to obtain different products and ratios of those products. Some reactions require up to 900C. Due to limitations of the materials I try to keep the temperatures between 400C and 550C. So you can use aluminum at those temperatures, but any higher you would risk catastrophic failure. I used a stainless steel pressure paint pot that came with 4 lid clamps, and I had to add 4 more modified c-clamps to get enough pressure to prevent leaks. You could also use catalysts to lower temperature requirements significantly. I'm still looking into those options. Hope this helps, feel free to ask if you have any questions.

[@TheLittleIdeasllc]

Hey, Tim! Thanks for the great advice. Keep it coming if you see an area that we can improve. I did an off-camera experiment and it turns out our "not-a-turkey-burner" can easily smelt aluminum....SMH! I'm sure the aluminum reactor would have been fine if we were just sticking to making simple charcoal and light carbon based materials, however, our ultimate goal is the complete pyrolysis of end-of-life rubber - specifically tires, so, that reactor only lasted 2 days....oops! I am happy to say that I did achieve success, and full pyrolysis did occur with the vulcanized rubber (2 hockey pucks), because I had them in a steel container inside the reactor. That container survived with no deformity and contained pure carbon black. We will be using stainless for our new reactor. It is approximately 18x18x18, so it is a mini-monster. I will also be jacketing it with ceramic wool so we don't have any major cool spots that will condense within the reactor itself. I ordered an over-kill amount of "c-clamps" and will be using them to hold the lid tight, and our outlet will not allow for excess - unwanted - pressure build-up because it is 1.5 inched in diameter. Thanks for the temperature advice. I believe the top of your range is correct for complete rubber pyrolysis, and is where I plan to hold the start of my rubber experiment temps. Stay tuned. And, if you didn't catch our other project, we are going to turn the tire carbon into a diamonds. The math is done and we are about a month from starting the build of that machine. Have a great week. -Gregg and Kyla

[@timothygorman2846]

@TheLittleIdeasllc I'm going to upscale to a 55 gallon drum reactor, because I will need to move volume. My plan is to weld some pipe to the sides, for reinforcement, and to make a gap between the drum and the ceramic wool, so the heat from the burner can rise up the sides and heat the drum more evenly. I'm flowing my gas through a gasometer for cleaning the gas, and will be capturing the oil for further refinement and the gas for storage and to run the burner. With a gasometer, my chamber needs to be able to withstand around 15-20 psi to displace the water. Sealed drums are rated for around 22 psi, so I think this will work. I'll be checking out your other projects. Being able to make diamonds would be very cool. Good luck.