Installation for thermal cleaning of aluminium chips and dust from machining processes
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17512/INSTAL.2026.10.04Keywords:
aluminium recycling, thermal cleaning, aluminum swarf, cooling-lubricating emulsions, rotary kilnAbstract
The construction and preliminary on-site test results of an installation for the thermal removal of organic contaminants from waste aluminium fractions generated during mechanical processing are presented in the article. Previous laboratory studies confirmed the effective removal of technical paraffins and cooling-lubricating emulsions from aluminium chips and dust under controlled temperature conditions. The paper describes an industrial installation featuring an indi rectly heated rotary drum reactor and presents results from its initial performance verification. The results confirm high efficiency in aluminium cleaning, achieving a significant reduction in volatile fractions while preserving aluminium's metallic properties, along with stable continuous operation under controlled thermal conditions. The degassing process strongly depends on contaminant type: for coolant-contaminated material, process temperatures around 300 °C are sufficient, whereas paraffin-contaminated material requires approximately 400 °C. This indicates that process temperature selection cannot be arbitrary and should be based on both feedstock characteristics and required final material purity. In the case of an industrial installation and a material contaminated with coolant, over 66% of volatile matter is released at a temperature as low as 270 °C. When treating wet material at 300 °C in a pilot plant, the loss of volatile fractions exceeded 90%. The findings provide a basis for further process optimization and assessment of its energy and environmental performance.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Tomasz Hardy, Wojciech Plaza (Autor)
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