What's the most energy efficient way to melt silver?

[Bimetallic]

Hi all – What's the most energy efficient way to melt silver, at an industrial scale? I asked on Quora, and someone answered:

Quote

I believe a forced-air natural gas furnace with a silicon carbide crucible would be about the most cost effective. I personally prefer electric induction but I’m reasonably sure it would take more energy, thus be less efficient.

I'm not familiar with either method. Have any refiners or researchers tried laser-based techniques? It seems like it has the potential to more precisely deliver heat, but I don't know how efficient it would be in practice.

[Pete]

7 hours ago, Bimetallic said:

Hi all – What's the most energy efficient way to melt silver, at an industrial scale? I asked on Quora, and someone answered:

I'm not familiar with either method. Have any refiners or researchers tried laser-based techniques? It seems like it has the potential to more precisely deliver heat, but I don't know how efficient it would be in practice.

Are you asking really 'energy efficient' or 'cost' ?

A laser method would not be energy efficient at all ( the output from the laser would be efficient at heating the sample but the wall-plug efficiency of laser itself isn't great with the best being a fibre laser ) and would be seriously expensive taking into account capital costs.
Using gas or electricity would I guess be similar in energy efficiency but would be different in cost depending on the price you are paying for each kWh of energy. 

[SilverFlame]

If you are asking about true industrial scale I would contact a furnace manufacturer. Industrial scale is huge and the energy would be less important than quality and speed... So in my opinion going industrial scale would again be getting a good furnace and then rethinking how it gets its power if it's from solar energy or what. You need to have cost efficiency. Only thinking about energy savings would ruin you within the first year.