Experimental observations on the thermal degradation of a porous bed of tires

In this paper, an experimental study on the forward combustion of a bed of tires and refractory briquettes is presented. Temperature measurements within the reactor were obtained as a function of time as well as the evolution of the fuel bed. The products of combustion were cooled down, and usable liquid fuel was recovered and measured. The reaction was found to become unstable for fuel concentrations lower than 50%. The results show that the airflow and tire concentration define different modes of combustion while the reaction remains oxygen limited. Oil production is maximized when an increase in airflow leads to a transition from a rate-limited reaction to a heat transfer-limited propagation. Variation of the tire concentration shows the importance of the inert in achieving high conversion rates.