Carbon dioxide gas rock breaking system - GIF

**nova_robotics** · Mar 10, 2026, 07:49 AM

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

**ductape** · Mar 10, 2026, 10:42 AM

Originally Posted by nova_robotics

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** · Mar 10, 2026, 12:38 PM

Originally Posted by ductape

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** · Mar 10, 2026, 03:06 PM

Originally Posted by nova_robotics

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.