The industrial ecology of the iron casting industry

Metal casting is an energy and materials intensive manufacturing process, which is an important U.S. industry. This study analyzes iron casting, in particular, for possible improvements that will result in greater efficiencies and therefore greater global competitiveness. The quantity and types of materials and energy used are dependent on the technologies selected and the cast part parameters. The most energy intensive step is melting, which is explored with an input-output analysis and an energy comparison of three major technologies: cupola melting and the heel and batch types of coreless electric induction melting. The major goal of this project is the creation of a material and energy flow model of the typical iron casting facility. This input-output process model is used to analyze the effect that different melting technologies will have on energy, materials and pollution, including selected upstream processes. Findings show that energy and the associated carbon dioxide emissions vary widely with melting technology and the relative benefits depend on where the boundaries are drawn in the analysis.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2007

Author dc:creator

• Jones, Alissa J. (Alissa Jean)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Timothy G. Gutowski.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/39876

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/39876