Remelting and inclusion refining of aluminium

Remelting and Inclusion Refining of Aluminium Remelting of post-consumed and process aluminium scrap reveals new challenges both on the environmental, metal yield and metal quality side. This topic has become very relevant due to the continuously increas ing energy prices in Europe. The proposed innovation project is directed towards the production of aluminium from pot-room metal and remelted sources. The project will be carried out by the aluminium producers Hydro Aluminium Metal, Hydro Aluminium Produc ts, Elkem Aluminium and Sapa ? in close cooperation with research partners SINTEF, NTNU, Technical University of Aachen, and Technical University of Delft. The overall aim of this project is to contribute to an increase in the production of casthouse pro ducts using increased amounts of remelted cold metal. The challenges in cold metal remelting are mainly maintaining a high metal yield and low energy consumption, while retaining the same high metal quality as produced through primary production. The pro ject will be divided into three sub-projects: A. Remelting and Furnace Operation; B. Melt Treatment; C. Metal Quality. For remelting and furnace operation, the goals are: to reduce energy consumption from current 800-1000 kWh/t Al to less than 500 kWh/t A l assuming only cold metal melting, and to recommend new remelting furnace techniques. For melt treatment, the goals are: to produce highly clean aluminium - remove all inclusions > 10 µm, to develop new inclusion removal methods (Electromagnetic separati on, continuous filtration), and to understand filtration mechanisms. For metal quality, the goals are: to reduce metal loss with 50 %, and to demonstrate new online methods to detect inclusions down to 10µm in the molten aluminium, and to understand mecha nisms of oxide/dross formation. Three Ph.D. students will be linked to the research program. One is for remelting and furnace operation, one is for filtration, and another is for electromagnetic separation