Alcan International Limited

Novelis, Inc.

Luc Belley

Jean-François Bilodeau

Andre Gendron

Claude Simard

Stéphane Ménard

Wesley Donald Stevens

Edward J Wilson

Paul Banks

Brad D Burridge

Tony I Phelps

André Gendron

Serge Munger

Stephane Menard

Stéphane MÉNARD

A regenerative burner device for a furnace and a method of removing contaminants from such a device. The burner device includes a burner for introducing heat and waste gas into a furnace during ignition when supplied with fuel and a combustion gas, a media bed comprising refractory particles, and ducting for delivering combustion gas to said burner during ignition, and for drawing waste gas from said furnace on termination of ignition. The ducting causes the combustion gas and the waste gas to pass in succession through the media bed. Means are provided for periodically delivering a rapid flow of a decontaminating gas into said media bed. The rapid flow is of sufficient force to dislodge contaminants collected in the media bed from said waste gas.

Apparatus and method for cleaning regenerative-burner media bed

A method is described for priming an in-line molten metal filtration unit having a porous ceramic or refractory filter mounted substantially horizontally in a filter box. This filter box has an inlet for molten metal and an outlet for molten metal, the outlet being a closeable outlet in an exit well connecting to the downstream side of the filter. The method of the invention comprises the steps of adding a molten metal to the filter box sufficient to entirely cover the upstream side of the filter with a depth of molten metal and temporarily sealing the outlet in the exit well. A steadily increasing vacuum is then applied to the closed exit well at a rate between 0.1 and 10 kPa per second by withdrawing a stream of air from the exit well by means of a fan or air venturi until molten metal begins to flow through the filter. At that point the vacuum is quickly released and the molten metal outlet is opened. Once the filter has been primed in this manner, flow of metal through the filter continues while requiring only a relatively low head of molten metal on the inlet side of the filter.

Method of priming filter for molten metal

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Jonquière, Canada

Luc Belley