Recycling Aluminum is not as simple as it sounds either - that is unless
you know what you are recycling. Scrap Al comes in many flavours and
many different alloys. While it is easy to melt it is tough to keep
clean because of it's affinity for oxygen. You can turn clean scrap
into a mix of oxide and aluminum (dross) relatively easily if you are
not careful. This can lead to high metal losses and may create an
unstable mess that is both dangerous and unfriendly to the environment.
Especially if you remelt something like pop cans since they have a
very high surface to volume ratio.
Safety issues arise as well: charging wet scrap (say a crushed pop can
with a bit of moisture left in it) into a liquid heal in a furnace can,
because of aluminums high reactivity and the fact that aluminum oxide is
more stable than hydrogen oxide (water), cause a very powerful explosion.
The Aluminum Association has many publications on this topic through
their website:
formatting link
Organizations like the American Foundry Society also publish books and
give courses on melting and handling Aluminum. See
formatting link
You might make a better profit collecting and selling the scrap to
existing companies that specialize in this sort of thing. As jb says,
economies of scale really matter in this business. See the following
for an example:
formatting link
jim beam wrote:
> why?
>
> do the math for the energy necessary to melt this stuff. if your plan
> is just to recycle, do the earth a favor and
/don't/ burn even more
> irreplacable fossil fuel "recovering" material than will ever be saved. >
> as wk says, recovering glass is an an absolute negative. recovering
> al & fe is best left to those with economies of scale.
>
> jb
>
>
> Coalbunny wrote:
>
>> On Sat, 03 Jan 2004 14:35:30 GMT, "Alan Black"
>> carved in
>> granite...
>>
>>
>>> I have built a number of propane fired furnaces that use a blower. >>> There is
>>> a fellow selling a naturally aspirated unit all the time an ebay for a
>>> couple hundred bucks. You can build the same unit for about half >>> that if
>>> your time is cheap.
>>>
>>
>> Got any pics or plans?
>> Carl
>>
>> --
>> This Message is guaranteed environmentally friendly
>> Manufactured with 10% post consumer ASCII
>> Meets all EPA regulations for clean air
>> Using only naturally occuring fibers
>> Use the Message with confidance.
>> (Some settling may occure in transit.)
>> (Best if Used before May 12th, 2250)
>>
>> removenumeralstoreplyviaemail...
>>
>>
>>