Method of protective atmosphere heating

摘要

A method for heating and/or melting a charge such as aluminum in a furnace using heat generated by combustion to radiatively heat the charge through a layer of protective gas wherein combustion reaction products generated by the combustion are exhausted from a lower level within the furnace, and, during melting, the protective gas layer has a higher upper boundary than during a subsequent heating period, enabling reduced NOx generation, lower fuel and oxygen consumption and reduced refractory corrosion by avoiding furnace gas flow through the high temperature upper furnace region.