I was out it the shop today trying to do pyrolysis of plastic, no luck. I have a large pressure cooker inside the burner used for frying turkeys. I have a 1/4" copper tube fitted to it running into a 5 gallon water bucket.
I have used another method before with a canister filled with wire, inverted in a burn barrel, the top (which faces down) has a 1 1/2" pipe in the middle and the gases freely escaped from the container, down into the coals, feeding the fire. This got out of control, putting out tons of white steam (it was winter time), the more gas the canister would put out the more hotter the fire get. I wasn't trying to condense anything just burning all the gases that came out. The fire got too hot and started burning the plastic (not real bad) but did put out some darker smoke. I wouldn't try that method again, got too hot no way to control the heat.
Back to tonite with the pressure cooker, the flame temperature was only around 550F and the steamer was sitting around 300F for about 1 hour. I started to smell sulphur coming from the 5 gallon bucket I was bubbling through and shut down. As the apparatus was cooling it sucked the water from the bucket into the pressure cooker, when I opened the lid total stink. Almost a sweet smell, kinda sulpher, kinda rotten eggs mixed with carrot juice.
If you have ever tried to do pyrolysis on wood for wood gas you know this also produces a very stinky liquid that seems to stain what it touches.
My experiment tonite didn't work, didn't get it hot enough, came out a big molten blob of plastic, seemed like there was more plastic after than before.
Wire insulation is PVC, the chlorine is release during pyrolysis making hydrochloric acid, I think this is why it was stinging you. Burning this same chlorine creates dioxins, etc. which are bad.
I have had one good run using the method of an inverted canister in a burn barrel. The canister was only lightly packed and the flame was well moderated. Wire turned out so nice, charcoal just fell off leaving bright copper with no signs of burning.
Let me know if you are still doing this....
Bookmarks