Reverb or secondary melting furnaces are an effective way to achieve a global circular economy for aluminium supply. The recycling of aluminium uses up to 95% less energy compared to the primary production route, and global production of secondary aluminium has increased by 86% from 2000 to 2015. In 2015, the total amount of secondary aluminium produced accounted for about 22% of the total global aluminium production. This increasing trend in secondary aluminium production will continue to grow in the future as more aluminium becomes available through old scrap metal and aluminium manufacturers are pushed to reduce their carbon footprint to move towards net-zero goals. The increase in the secondary aluminium market size, along with the global effort towards decarbonisation, creates pressure on producers to find innovative ways to decarbonise their operations.
This paper focuses on the performance of the patent pending
Horizontal Transient Heating Burner (HTHB) technology developed by Air
Products.
This article was first published in the October 2022 issue of Light Metal Age.