EcoMelt Cokeless Melting Furnace is a Vertical Shaft Melting furnace and was invented and developed by Mr. Richard Taft, MD of Cokeless Cupolas, UK as a melting unit for Cast iron without use of coke as in a conventional cupola. It was patented by him in the year 1972. In December 2005, an agreement was signed between Cokeless Cupolas Ltd and Wesman to work together for propagating this low emission – high efficiency technology for the benefit of the ferrous foundries throughout the world.

The Cokeless Melting Furnace uses Natural Gas, Propane, LPG or Coal Bed Methane (CBM) which has similar composition and calorific value as that of Natural Gas. Even Light Oil may be used provided there is no Sulphur in the oil. Absence of sulphur makes the molten metal obtained from Cokeless Melting furnace suitable for conversion, after superheating, into Ductile Iron without going through the de-sulphurision process where temperature is reduced due to endothermic reaction. Thus further heating / addition of heat energy to compensate the temperature loss is avoided by using the Ecomelt furnace.

In India this Cokeless Melting Technology has a special significance. Elimination of coke is a great relief to the foundry men as availability of coke is erratic and the price is highly fluctuating. Also, considering the shortage of power in India, it may be noted that when duplexed with Induction Furnace for production of Ductile Iron, the power requirement is reduced substantially. Both Cokeless Melting Furnace and the Induction furnace may be run by a standby generator of reasonably low rating. The duplexing with Induction furnace also results in lowest over all melting cost which provides the foundry a cutting edge in the competitive market.

Besides achieving lowest melting cost, the pollution norm of the country can easily be met without installing any pollution control device. If insisted by the authority, a simple low cost wet cap may be installed to further reduce the emission level. The SPM level, as measured in actual installations, is less than one third the allowable limits.

Because of high fuel efficiency of Cokeless Melting Furnace, much less fuel is consumed for melting same quantity of metal compared to that in other melting furnaces. As a result, for same quantity of molten metal, much less CO₂ is emitted. Therefore, this technology qualifies as “Low Carbon” Green technology. As the name suggests these Cokeless Melting Furnaces are both Eco-friendly and Economical.

Please also visit www.cokeless.co.uk for additional details and articles.