Carbon dioxide gas rock breaking system - GIF

[ToolTalkBot]

Carbon dioxide gas rock breaking system.




Previously:

Fixing a dented drum with explosives - GIF
Rocket wrench for remotely defusing explosives - photo, GIF, and video
Training bees to detect explosives - GIF
Using explosives to removed hardened concrete from cement mixing truck - GIF

[nova_robotics]

I've never heard of such a thing. How does that work?

[ductape]

I've never heard of such a thing. How does that work?

I found this on it.

There is liquid CO2 inside the pipe. The wires operate a heater that makes the liquid turn to gas and burst the pipe.

[nova_robotics]

I found this on it.

There is liquid CO2 inside the pipe. The wires operate a heater that makes the liquid turn to gas and burst the pipe.

Very neat. The supercritical CO2 sounds like a giant pain. I wonder if dry ice would be a suitable substitute? Dry ice is readily available and easy to handle. The heat of fusion--er sublimation is very high though. You might get a container failure before you sublimate all of the dry ice. Or maybe there would be very little difference. I'm not sure how it works. There has to be a reason they're not using dry ice.

[ductape]

Very neat. The supercritical CO2 sounds like a giant pain. I wonder if dry ice would be a suitable substitute? Dry ice is readily available and easy to handle. The heat of fusion--er sublimation is very high though. You might get a container failure before you sublimate all of the dry ice. Or maybe there would be very little difference. I'm not sure how it works. There has to be a reason they're not using dry ice.

Dry ice would be a heck of a lot easier to work with than liquid CO2. Either one should eventually build up enough pressure to cause an explosion but I am far from an expert on this. The recommended method of lowering the pipe into the hole with an excavator versus the video showing the guys just throwing it in there is pretty entertaining after years of dealing with contractors. No offense.

[Nick79]

Very impressive - dangerous for sure but the results are great

[Frank S]

Dry Ice would not achieve the rapid expansion required to fracture the rock. Everyone seems to be thinking of the liquid CO2 as being some really dangerous substance. I have several CO2 air rifles those little cartridges contain liquid CO2. I use CO2 as my primary welding gas since CO2 affords deeper penetration on thicker metals, and when combined with welding wire that has a flux core, I get superior weld strength on thicker metals. The tanks hold 50LBS of CO2 if I turn 1 upside down and open the valve when the gas comes out it will make dry ice.
You can make your own liquid CO2 and consequentially dry ice with baking soda hydrochloric acid (IE vinegar) a couple of beakers a bubbler and filter a beach ball and a small refrigeration compressor.
Those tubes they are using to fracture the rock are engineered to have just enough strength with a reasonable safety margin for transport to contain the liquid CO2. A heating element inside causes the liquid to heat up creating more pressure than the tubes can withstand then boom.