Melting non-ferrous metals in a climate-neutral way is a key challenge for the metallurgical industry. Currently, natural gas-fired furnaces are predominantly used for the process. The situation is similar for the reheating and heat treatment of steel and other metals. The energy mix of these and many other thermal processes must change in view of the demand for climate neutrality in all branches of production.
The Foundry Institute at TU Bergakademie Freiberg has investigated climate-neutral electricity or gas-based thermal process technologies for various applications. The basic idea is to electrify existing industrial furnaces by replacing today's natural gas burners with electrically generated hot gas jets. The main requirement here was that the furnaces and their mode of operation could be retained, that there would be no emissions from combustion processes and that a qualitatively advantageous furnace atmosphere could be created by switching to hot gas jets. To this end, two innovative technologies have been developed at the institute and corresponding patents applied for. In both technologies, an electric current is used to generate a hot gas jet, one by a plasma and one by an inductively heated susceptor, which delivers a process heat of over 1200 °C comparable to previous natural gas flares and operates completely CO2-free.
The fields of application for these technologies are diverse, with both proprietary developments offering various advantages in addition to climate neutrality. In addition to being used for melting and holding aluminum and in reheating or heat treatment furnaces, ladle preheating in particular is also a field of application in the metallurgical industry. Other industries that today mainly use natural gas for heating purposes are the glass, cement and chemical industries.
Opening of the new pilot plant hall on 29.05.2024
Following the initial proof of concept for both technologies, the "Center for Climate-Neutral Metallurgical Thermal Processes" has now been set up at the Foundry Institute with a new pilot hall for further industry-oriented development. This center will be opened on 29.05.2024 jointly by the Saxon State Ministry of Science, Culture and Tourism and the TU Bergakademie Freiberg.
