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Green Power Furnaces in Aluminum Cast House for Scrap Preheating Using CO2-Flue Gas

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Abstract

Implementing preheating furnaces in the aluminum industry, powered by waste heat, has been a subject of interest due to the economic and energy-saving benefits. Metal holding furnaces, keeping aluminum in a liquid state (approx. 760 °C) before casting, are powered by fuel burners. Hot flue gas escapes the cast house furnaces at very high temperatures close to the aluminum melting point and represents a significant energy loss. One can heat aluminum scrap by redirecting hot flue gases from the holding furnace to a metal scrap preheating furnace, which is to be melted, prior to loading them in the metal melting furnace. Introducing a preheating step, incredibly hot flue gas, will reduce the melting time required while saving energy. This present study examines the effectiveness of preheating aluminum sow and billet profiles with hot flue gases and find the optimal design considerations for a preheating furnace. Different approaches to achieve quantitative heat treatment in batch homogenizing furnaces were evaluated. Heat transfer modeling, analysis of flue gas furnace, and sows’ temperature coupled with thermodynamic analysis improve thermal equation prediction precision. Turbulent fluid flow and heat transfer physics are used in a computational fluid dynamics model to simulate aluminum heating by hot gas.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful for the support of the Institute of Light Metal Metallurgy, Northeastern University. M. Diop is thankful to Dr. Thomas Arink from Masdar/EGA for helpful discussions on industrial furnace.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Metallurgy, Northeastern University, Wenhua Road, Shenyang, 110819, China

    Mouhamadou A. Diop, Zhongning Shi, Tao Wenju & Zhaowen Wang

  2. MACE3 Chair of Industrial Research, Department of Civil Engineering and Water, Laval University, Pavillon Adrien-Pouliot-1065, av. de la Médecine, Quebec, QC, G1V 0A6, Canada

    Mario Fafard

  3. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Masdar Institute, Khalifa University, P.O. Box: 127788, Abu Dhabi, UAE

    Sokhna Awa Bousso

Authors
  1. Mouhamadou A. Diop
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  2. Zhongning Shi
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  5. Tao Wenju
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Correspondence to Mouhamadou A. Diop.

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The contributing editor for this article was Sharif Jahanshahi.

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Diop, M.A., Shi, Z., Fafard, M. et al. Green Power Furnaces in Aluminum Cast House for Scrap Preheating Using CO2-Flue Gas. J. Sustain. Metall. 7, 46–59 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40831-020-00323-1

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