Oxy-Fuel Technologies for Improved Efficiency in Aluminum Scrap Melting

Abstract

Challenged with responding to increased market demand, key priorities for secondary aluminum smelters today are improving scrap recycling efficiency, while reducing emissions. Moreover, due to rising scrap prices, secondary aluminium recyclers are turning to various qualities of scraps—even with high contents of organic materials. To address these trends, Air Liquide has recently carried out developments of an advanced control (BoostAL COntrol) which quickly detects peaks of combustibles in the fumes and reduces fuel consumption by recovering energy from volatile organic compounds in the scrap, along with an improved oxy-burner technology (BoostAL DDC) which optimizes heat transfer during the different phases of the melt process through two additional types of combustion modes. This paper will describe an industrial case study where BoostAL DDC has been combined with BoostAL COntrol for melting both clean scrap and contaminated scrap, allowing one to increase productivity and reduce specific energy consumption while keeping high metal yield.