Construcción de un horno de fundición para la recuperación de material metálico a partir de residuos sólidos del Distrito Metropolitano de Quito: enfoque en latas de aluminio

Abstract

The following project was done with the purpose of developing a tool that makes easier the recovery of material from solid waste of Distrito Metropolitano de Quito, promoting this way a change in the actual economy towards a circular system. The study focused in aluminum, each ton of this metal obtained from primary extraction requires from 14 000 to 18 000 kWh of energy (Tominaga Terukina, 2013), producing to the atmosphere approximately 8 to 22 kilos of CO2e per kilo of primary aluminum ingot, depending on the place it was processed (Collin, 2009), in addition is a material that taker 400 year to be oxidized. Aluminum is a metal 100% recyclable, which allows to decrease the energetic consumption in a 95% and reach in the path, similar properties from the primary material (ARPAL, 2013). The project emphasizes in the recovery of this material from cans used for the packaging industry, waste that in much countries is already been recycled, reaching rates of recovery of 85% (Emison, n.d.), in the other hand, in Ecuador cans are not consider a priority material for recycling. A crucible furnace was built, and temperature was monitored in relation to time, to assess the efficiency achieving in reaching the melting temperature of aluminum, also the average recoverability rate of the metal, generated by the equipment, was calculated from 3 can casting tests. In addition, was calculated the energy and fuel consumption of the furnace, thus determining the carbon footprint generated throughout the material recovery process. The furnace reduces the amount of waste that reaches DMQ landfills and it is mainly a method of recovering material, entering it into the production chain and reducing the amount or resources and energy used to obtain new raw material