A low-cost crucible furnace for mechanical engineering education: Design, construction, and fuel analysis

This study presents the design, development, and testing of a crucible furnace engineered for melting aluminium using an R22 gas tank as the main structure. We estimated the fuel consumption using the calorific value ( <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mi>C</mml:mi> <mml:mi>V</mml:mi> </mml:math> ) analysis and compared it with the measured fuel consumption by melting one aluminium-loaded crucible. Further, we detailed a step-by-step of how to build this crucible furnace. The furnace successfully melted the aluminium load for all fuel sources tested. This project provides a valuable resource for educational and industrial applications in small-scale aluminium recycling. Lastly, both bio-based oils (babassu, palm, and soybean oils) and waste lubricating oil were demonstrated to be suitable for use as fuel sources.