Non-Chemical Incineration question

[bswartzwelder]

I am planning on using my small home-made forge to incinerate some black plastic IC chips. I have two methods in mind, and am just not quite sure if one method would be better that the other:

Method 1: Place the chips into a stainless steel frying pan and place that on top of the forge. Use a loose fitting lid or not? The handle on the frying pan would most likely melt and fall off, so I'll be handling it with vise grip pliers.

Method 2: Place the chips into a piece of iron/steel pipe which has the bottom closed off with a 1/4 inch steel plate welded into it. Should I loosely close it off or leave the top completely open? The iron/steel pipe can actually be lowered down into the forge where it will get even more heat.

With either method, the forge uses charcoal and has air forced into it from the bottom. I should be able to heat either device to a red hot heat.

 

[MarcoP]

As far my understanding goes, method 1 with no lid and lot of heat.

 

[rickbb]

No tight fitting lid as that would build up gas pressure and potentially be an explosive hazard.

You do need to make sure you have enough heat or long enough combustion path to burn the toxic black smoke from the plastic. Commonly called an after burner.

 

[Pantherlikher]

Both methods sound like a cheap "Pyrolizer"... Burning without O2.
The Pipe sounds dangerous. Melted black goo from chips can clog the pipe causing pressure possibilities. I've witnessed this with my container in my fire box.

The problem with burning anything is the smoke...toxic smoke.
This is what needs to be addressed more then actually burning the material. I'd need to think long and hard to come up with a way of a forge with an "after burner" to incinerate the toxic smoke.

B.S.

 

[bswartzwelder]

OK, here goes. Purchased a brand new 10 inch (5 quart) stainless steel frying pan from WalMart. The side walls are approximately 2 inches high.

Lit some charcoal in a "chimney". After it was well lit, I dumped it into the forge and finished filling it with unlit charcoal. Turned on the blower. While waiting for the charcoal on top to light, I put about an inch of chips into the pan. Then put the pan over the forge opening. Soon, it started to give off some dark black smoke, so I set a 20 inch fan behind everything to blow the smoke away from my neighbors. It wasn't long until the smoke ignited and started to burn. I was actually surprised at how little smoke there actually was. Eventually, the fire in the frying pan went out, so I stirred the chips with a small piece of steel I had laying around. I could see the bottom of the pan was a bright red.

The fire in the forge started to go out, so I took the frying pan off to add more charcoal. When I set it down, it acted as though there was something under it, like a small ball. When I picked the frying pan back up to place it back on the heat, I could see the bottom of the pan had warped from the heat. I continued heating until I ran out of charcoal. At that time, I dumped the chips onto a cookie sheet with a 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch lip around it. While they were cooling, I tried to tap the frying pan back into its original shape. Unfortunately, a piece of the bottom of the frying pan broke out leaving a 2 inch to 3 inch hole in the bottom of the frying pan.

While a goodly portion of the chips had turned to ash, not all of them had. I have a piece of 4.5 inch steel pipe about 8 or 9 inches long. I plan on welding a piece of 1/4 inch plate steel to one end. Then I will put all the chips which haven't completely converted into ash into it and put it into the forge. Fill the forge with charcoal and light it up again. I am fairly certain this should reduce everything that's left to ashes.

Perhaps a better quality frying pan might have worked. I'm not sure. The nearest thrift store is over 30 miles away, but we do have a flea market nearby every Saturday morning. I will look there for a better quality frying pan when I'm in the area. I want to thank everyone who responded.