Comparison of salt-free aluminum dross treatment processes

Necip Ünlü*, Michel G. Drouet

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

83 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Dross is an unavoidable by-product of the aluminum production. It forms at the surface of the molten metal as the latter reacts with the furnace atmosphere. Depending on the process, it contains, on average, about 50% free aluminum metal dispersed in an oxide layer. Since the aluminum production is highly energy-intensive, dross recycling is very attractive from both the energy and the economic standpoints. The conventional recycling process using salt rotary furnaces is thermally inefficient and environmentally non-acceptable because of the production of salt slags. Several salt-free dross treatment processes have been proposed in the last few years, their operation, energy consumption and metal yield will be described in detail and compared in the present paper.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)61-72
Number of pages12
JournalResources, Conservation and Recycling
Volume36
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jul 2002

Keywords

  • Alcan plasma torch process
  • Aluminum
  • Alurec process
  • Droscar process
  • Drosrite process
  • Dross recycling
  • Ecocent process
  • Salt-free dross processing

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