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Abstract
Keywords: Dross recycling; Aluminum; Salt-free dross processing; Alcan plasma torch process; Droscar
process; Alurec process; Ecocent process; Drosrite process
1. Introduction
* Corresponding author. Present address: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Univer-
sity of Virginia, 116 Engineer’s Way, Charlottesville, VA 22904-4745, USA. Tel.: + 1-434-982-5692.
E-mail addresses: nu4n@virginia.edu (N. U8 nlü), mdrouet@pyrogenesis.com (M.G. Drouet).
1
Tel. +1-514-937-0002; fax: +1-514-937-5757.
0921-3449/02/$ - see front matter © 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 9 2 1 - 3 4 4 9 ( 0 2 ) 0 0 0 1 0 - 1
62 N. U8 nlü, M.G. Drouet / Resources, Conser6ation and Recycling 36 (2002) 61–72
a dross is formed as the molten metal reacts with the furnace atmosphere (MFS
Engineering Ltd Catalogs, 1997). It generally represents from 1 to 10% of the melt
and depending on the process, may contain, on average, between 30 and 60% free
aluminum metal dispersed in an oxide layer, although higher and lower contents
may occur (Ruff, 1998; Gripenberg et al., 1997).
Traditionally, the recovery of the aluminum metal has been performed using the
rotary salt furnace (RSF) process. In the RSF process, an oil or gas fired furnace
is charged with the dross, and a salt flux (up to 50% of the dross weight) is added.
The salt protects the metal from the reactive atmosphere and facilitates agglomera-
tion and separation of the metal, thereby increasing metal recovery. Fig. 1 shows
the RSF process (Lavoie and Dube, 1991). Using salt brings some disadvantages
such as its cost, environmental and safety hazards (Lavoie and Dube, 1991). The
non-metallic by-product is referred to as salt cake, a mixture of aluminum oxides
and aluminum nitrides, metal and salts. More than 1 ton of salt cake is produced
for every ton of dross treated. The salt cake is a growing environmental problem
(Gripenberg et al., 1995). Other drawbacks are that salt vapors are emitted from the
furnace and the fact that the salt requires energy for melting and is costly to
purchase, transport (Gripenberg et al., 1995). With the objective of developing a
salt-free process, in the last 10 years, numerous R&D activities have been con-
ducted at different locations around the world. In this paper, we will review the
processes proposed by Hydro-Quebec and Alcan both from Canada, AGA and
Hoogoven in Holland, Focon Foundry in Austria and more recently by PyroGene-
sis, again from Canada.
Fig. 1. The rotary salt furnace process (Lavoie and Dube, 1991).
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Fig. 2. The flow sheet of the entire plasma dross treatment process (Lavoie and Dube, 1991).
This process, initially tested in 1987 at the Hydro-Quebec Research Center, has
been in operation at the Alcan Treatment Center in Jonquieres, Canada, for the last
9 years. Instead of using a gas or fuel burner, as in the RSF, a plasma torch is used
to provide the required heat for heating the charge in the rotary furnace. The torch
is mounted on the charging door of the rotary furnace which is designed to
maintain close control of the atmosphere composition. The plasma torch consists of
two water-cooled internal electrodes separated by a small gap through which the
process gas, such as air or nitrogen, is continuously injected. The dross is charged,
the door is closed and the application of high voltage initiates an electric arc
between the torch electrodes. The arc heats the gas to a very high temperature,
causing the gas to dissociate and partially ionize. The charge is heated to 700–
800 °C while the furnace is rotated. The aluminum in the dross is finely divided and
wrapped in oxide films. The presence of the oxide films results from the oxidation
of the metal in contact with the reactive fossil fuel furnace atmosphere where the
dross was initially produced. During heating of the dross by the plasma torch,
which operates with air or nitrogen as the process gas, further oxides and nitrides
are formed as the plasma gases react with some of the free metal contained in the
dross. The rotation of the furnace provides mechanical stirring that ruptures the
oxide film, freeing molten metal and improving metal recovery. The oxide portion
of the dross, termed non-metallic product (NMP), is a grayish powder containing
mostly alumina with variable quantities of aluminum nitride and magnesium oxide
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depending on the alloy composition (Lavoie and Dube, 1991). Fig. 2 shows the flow
sheet of the entire plasma dross treatment process.
Using electricity as the source of heat was regarded too complex and expensive
by AGA and its partners, Hoogovens Aluminum and MAN GHH. Instead, their
efforts were focused on improving the fuel heated rotary furnace technology by
using an oxygen-fuel burner and by controlling the atmosphere in the furnace to
limit oxidation of the recoverable aluminum metal (Gripenberg et al., 1995, 1997).
Fig. 3. Phases of the DROSCAR process (Drouet et al., 1994, 1995). (a) Dross charging. (b) Heating.
(c) Aluminum tapping. (d) Discharging solid residues.
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A rotary tiltable converter type furnace, used for the process called ALUREC, is
illustrated in Fig. 4. The oxy-fuel burner and the exhaust gas port are located on
the same side. This design offers high-energy efficiency and very good possibilities
to control the furnace atmosphere (Gripenberg et al., 1995).
The oxy-fuel burner heats the converter refractory wall in a short time to about
1000 °C. Through furnace rotation, the heat is transferred to the charge by
conduction, and the heat is further distributed within the charge by mixing. Heat is
also transferred through direct radiation from the flame to the charge (Gripenberg
et al., 1995). The metal is collected at the bottom of the converter, and the solid
NMP floats on top. The metal is tapped separately from the NMP, it can be
returned directly into the melting or holding furnaces or is cast into sows or
T-ingots. The NMP is discharged through the converter mouth (Gripenberg et al.,
1995).
for ingot pouring. After the pouring of the metal the ‘dry’ residues are removed just
by tilting the ladle. Alternatively, the aluminum solidifies in the mould and is
discharged as a compact ring. The separation of the residues from the aluminum
ring is automatic (Kos, 1997, 2000).
Fig. 7. Energy sources and utilization per ton of dross input containing 50wt% free aluminum (Drouet
et al., 1994). (a) Air plasma torch process. (b) Graphite electrodes process.
Fig. 8. Mass balance per ton of dross input containing 50wt% free aluminum (Drouet et al., 1994). (a)
Air plasma torch process. (b) Graphite electrodes process.
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In the ALUREC process, the exhaust gas from the oxy-fuel burner does not
contain nitrogen. By contrast, air– fuel burners and plasma burners (air or nitrogen
based) produce exhaust gases with high concentrations of nitrogen. The presence of
nitrogen in the flame provides a potential for the formation of aluminum nitrides
that would contaminate the by-product from the process and could affect the
aluminum yield. Furthermore, the presence of nitrogen in the air plasma also
promotes the formation of NOx, which is not the case with ALUREC where no
nitrogen is used. The volume of exhaust gas from an oxy-fuel burner is small, only
about 25% of that of an air– fuel burner. This results in a smaller flame, and direct
contact with the charge can be avoided. There will be less convection and less mass
transfer between the oxy-fuel flame and the charge. Furthermore, the thermal
efficiency of an oxy-fuel heated furnace is much higher due to the small exhaust gas
volume. Considering the small exhaust gas volume, the exhaust gas composition
and possibilities of accurately controlling this composition with oxy-fuel, it was
concluded that the aluminum oxidation in the process would be under control.
While the RSF process uses a salt flux, ALUREC uses atmosphere control to
prevent oxidation (Gripenberg et al., 1995) and therefore no salt addition is
required.
The reduced exhaust gas volume in combination with the increased flame
temperature results in a more energy efficient process. Compared with air– fuel, the
energy consumption will be lower with oxy-fuel. The emissions of CO2 and SO2 will
be reduced, since they are proportional to the fuel consumption. The formation of
NOx is reduced because nitrogen is excluded from the combustion process. Depend-
ing on dross composition, about 500 kg of NMP is produced for each metric ton
of dross. This is about half the amount of by-product compared with the RSF
process. From the comparable tests, the metal recovery, defined as metal cast/dross
charged, was between 45– 60% with fuel consumption in the range of 200–400 kWh
per ton of dross (Gripenberg et al., 1995).
With ECOCENT, the consumption of the energy is more than 50% lower
compared to conventional dross processing technologies as the ECOCENT process
is using the inherent energy of the hot dross and no heating or fluxing salt is
needed. The high recovery rate and the pure metal result in a short amortization
period. The electronically controlled process needs no cooling water and is simple,
safe and environmentally sound (Kos, 1997).
The novel process developed by PyroGenesis, named DROSRITE, does not
require any external energy input either. Process energy is extracted from the solid
residue, stored in the furnace refractory wall, and released to the next batch of fresh
dross. Furthermore, the process is operated online with the molten aluminum
holding furnace where the dross is generated. Thus, the hot metal can be returned
to the furnace immediately after tapping still in its molten form. Energy savings in
comparison with conventional processes can exceed 2.500 kWh/ton of dross. The
recovery rate with DROSRITE was found to be 10% more than with RSF. The
actual recovery with any process will of course depends on the initial metal content
in the dross. Mass and energy balances for such a 2.1 ton DROSRITE unit are
presented in Figs. 9 and 10, respectively, with the assumption that the process will,
70 N. U8 nlü, M.G. Drouet / Resources, Conser6ation and Recycling 36 (2002) 61–72
Fig. 9. Mass balance for a 2.1 ton DROSRITE unit (Drouet et al., 2000).
N. U8 nlü, M.G. Drouet / Resources, Conser6ation and Recycling 36 (2002) 61–72 71
Fig. 10. Energy balance for a 2.1 ton DROSRITE unit (Drouet et al., 2000).
in this example, recover 600 kg of aluminum from each ton of dross. Environmental
advantages are even more marked. There is no salt cake requiring disposal. No
carbon dioxide or NOx gases are produced. No nitrides are formed. The process has
little off-gas and produces a residue that is suitable for the production of calcium
aluminate or for other value-added use (Drouet et al., 2000).
4. Conclusions
In the past, aluminum dross has constituted an unwanted by-product which was
to be eliminated in a quick and economic way. To remove the environmental and
financial disadvantages of the traditional rotary salt furnace process, several dross
treatment technologies have been developed during the last 10 years by the
aluminum industry. By the elimination of the need for salt flux, the energy
consumption is minimized, a high metal yield, reduced flue gas volume and
emissions are obtained, and an environmentally sound non-metallic by-product is
produced which can be recycled.
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