Clog prevention in a gas extraction system of a pyrolytic reactor

Abstract

One variation of a method for converting tires into pyrolytic byproducts includes: in a pyrolytic reactor, thermally depolymerizing a volume of rubber extracted from tires within an inert atmosphere into pyrolytic synthetic gas and solid carbonaceous material; within a centrifuge, removing from the pyrolytic synthetic gas residual solid carbonaceous material carried over from the pyrolytic reactor into the exhaust gas channel; within a vapor-liquid separator, separating vapor-phase pyrolytic synthetic gas from liquid-phase synthetic gas; depositing the liquid-phase synthetic gas into a heavy oil tank to form a cut of heavy oil in liquid phase; condensing a first portion of the vapor-phase synthetic gas in a light oil condenser to form a cut of light oil in liquid-phase; combusting a second portion of vapor-phase gas within a combustor; and recycling a third portion pyrolytic synthetic gas into heating elements within the pyrolytic reactor to heat the pyrolytic reactor.

I claim: 
     
         1 . A method for converting tires into pyrolytic oil and pyrolytic synthetic gas comprising:
 in a pyrolytic reactor, thermally depolymerizing a volume of rubber extracted from tires within an inert atmosphere into a set of pyrolytic byproducts comprising pyrolytic synthetic gas and solid carbonaceous material, heating elements within the pyrolytic reactor regulating temperature within the pyrolytic reactor;   extracting the pyrolytic synthetic gas from the pyrolytic reactor via an exhaust gas channel;   within a centrifuge, removing from the pyrolytic synthetic gas residual solid carbonaceous material carried over from the pyrolytic reactor into the exhaust gas channel;   within a vapor-liquid separator, separating vapor-phase pyrolytic synthetic gas from liquid-phase synthetic gas;   depositing the liquid-phase synthetic gas into a heavy oil tank to form a cut of heavy oil in liquid phase;   condensing a first portion of the vapor-phase synthetic gas in a light oil condenser to form a cut of light oil in liquid-phase;   decanting excess water from the cut of light oil;   combusting a second portion of vapor-phase gas within a combustor; and   recycling a third portion pyrolytic synthetic gas into the heating elements within the pyrolytic reactor to heat the pyrolytic reactor.   
     
     
         2 . A system for converting tires into pyrolytic oil and pyrolytic synthetic gas comprising:
 a pyrolysis channel configured to accept rubber extracted from waste tires;   a heating element configured to heat a bottom portion of the pyrolysis channel and induce incremental thermal decomposition of the rubber within the pyrolysis channel as the rubber translates within the pyrolysis channel under vacuum forming pyrolytic byproducts comprising pyrolytic synthetic gas and carbonaceous solid material;   a exhaust gas channel configured to direct the pyrolytic synthetic gas out of the pyrolysis channel at an exit velocity that induces carryover of less carbonaceous solid material than a threshold mass of carbonaceous solid material, the exhaust gas channel comprising a reamer configured to ream the exhaust gas channel at an interval to remove build-up of the carbonaceous solid material and condense pyrolytic synthetic gas within the exhaust gas channel and prevent oil fouling, the exhaust gas channel of a length corresponding to a desired residence time of the pyrolytic synthetic gas proportional to a time to cool the pyrolytic synthetic gas to a particular temperature prior to exiting the exhaust gas channel, the time to cool dependent on a velocity of the pyrolytic synthetic gas within the exhaust gas channel and a composition of the pyrolytic synthetic gas; and   a condensation system configured to condense a portion of the pyrolytic synthetic gas into liquid-phase oil.