The Search for the Magical Heat-Resistant Pan

The Background

Nick from Fortera is thankfully helping me burn the 25 kg batch of CSA leftover from the previous part of the project (and later the 60 kg batch being shipped over from China) at around 800-900 Celsius (my oven at home would probably not reach those temperatures). The reason behind the burning is to reduce the carbon (and other impurities) in the CSA until it's around 50% of the original weight (3-4 hours of burning). Unfortunately, Fortera only had small ceramic trays and crucibles that could resist the high temperatures necessary, so it was up to me to find larger containers, or our rate of burning would be around 3-5 kg per week, and we would miss the March 21st deadline for making concrete at Cemex.

The Search

As most searches for products, my searched began on amazon and google shopping. Unfortunately, my searches for "containers for high temperature applications/burning" only yielded lunch containers made of weak metal, glass and plastic. I needed large containers that could handle my intense project. After a few hours of clueless searching, I asked Nick for advice, and he told me to look at strong stainless steels, ceramic and perhaps graphite. Searches for ceramic containers yielded plant pots (too small or tall) or ceramic crucibles (pictured below). Searching for Graphite containers, I found scientific-application crucibles that costed an arm and a leg (also pictured below).

So... I decided to look outside, and visited Clay Planet, a pottery shop, to see if they had any products or useful advice. John, a helpful pottery veteran who only worked at that location on Saturdays, suggested a few clays that could be up to the job, but also said we might have to get our container custom-made to our specifications. John also suggested that CSA could have pottery applications, similar to other natural ashes such as volcanic ashes (used in glaze formulations). I would love to explore this use of CSA if I have the time.

Still confused, I returned home and consulted my trusty friend and coworker: my dad. He suggested I look at lab equipment sites such as Fisher Scientific. At the same time, I was also researching grades of stainless steel, as that seemed promising. Turns out 300-series stainless steel has high temperature resistance, up to 870-1000 Celsius. Therefore, I narrowed my search to stainless steel containers on these lab equipment sites. Finally, I found ... nothing useful. Actually, we had one lead for 304 stainless steel containers, but upon contacting the seller, they said they only sold to other business. Unfortunate.

Then, when all hope seemed to be lost, my dad suddenly remembered that he sourced many materials and equipment from an online supplier called Mcmaster-Carr. We looked and found dozens of 304 and 316 (even better than 304, with heat resistance up to 1200-1300 Celsius) stainless steel trays, ready to be shipped in a day or two. Sometimes, the answer is right under your nose all along. We ordered 4 and they will arrive at the house early next week. Hooray! The end.