Solid Oxide Membrane Electrolysis with Rotating Cathode (SOMERC), a Low-Cost Process for High Purity Titanium

旋转阴极固体氧化物膜电解 (SOMERC)，一种低成本高纯钛工艺

• 批准号: 0457381
• 负责人: Adam Powell
• 金额: $ 16万
• 依托单位: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2005
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2005-04-15 至 2006-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0457381&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Solid; Oxide; Membrane; Electrolysis; Rotating

The objective of this research is to assess the feasibility of a new process called "Solid Oxide Membrane Electrolysis with Rotating Cathode (SOMERC)" for making titanium metal from titanium dioxide at low cost. The approach of this research is to develop two innovative design features to avoid the two properties of titanium, which make it expensive. By producing solid metal, it avoids working with the extremely reactive liquid titanium; and the solid oxide membrane on the anode avoids a problem called ion cycling which reduces the efficiency of producing certain metals such as titanium, chromium and tantalum. This proof of concept grant will fund experiments to determine the suitability of the solid oxide membrane as the anode for titanium production, and computer simulations to determine whether the rotating cathode will produce dense solid metal as desired. If these studies succeed, then the SOMERC process should work as designed.Titanium is a high-strength low-density metal with outstanding corrosion resistance used in demanding applications from aerospace to chemical industry equipment to offshore oil drilling platforms. Unfortunately, it is much more expensive than other engineering metals such as steel (including stainless steel), aluminum and magnesium alloys. As the fourth most abundant metal in the earth's crust, with oxide chemical bonding energy considerably lower than that of aluminum and magnesium, titanium has great potential to be produced at low cost. If successful, SOMERC will help to fulfill that potential, forcing industry to re-think the role of titanium in applications from automobiles to consumer appliances and others limited only by the imagination of engineers. Furthermore, this project will also provide an example of low-cost environmentally benign process development for engineering education. And independent of its commercial success, the science behind SOMERC will form the basis of educational case studies in electrochemistry and process engineering

本研究的目的是评估一种新的工艺的可行性，称为“固体氧化物膜电解与旋转阴极（SOMERC）”，从二氧化钛在低成本的金属钛。 这项研究的方法是开发两个创新的设计功能，以避免钛的两个属性，这使得它昂贵。 通过生产固体金属，它避免了与反应性极强的液体钛一起工作;阳极上的固体氧化物膜避免了称为离子循环的问题，该问题降低了生产某些金属如钛，铬和钽的效率。 这项概念验证拨款将资助实验，以确定固体氧化物膜作为钛生产阳极的适用性，以及计算机模拟，以确定旋转阴极是否会产生所需的致密固体金属。 钛是一种高强度、低密度的金属，具有出色的耐腐蚀性，广泛应用于航空航天、化工设备和海上石油钻井平台等各种苛刻的应用领域。 不幸的是，它比其他工程金属，如钢（包括不锈钢），铝和镁合金昂贵得多。 作为地壳中第四丰富的金属，其氧化物化学结合能远低于铝和镁，钛具有以低成本生产的巨大潜力。 如果成功，SOMERC将有助于实现这一潜力，迫使工业界重新思考钛在从汽车到消费电器和其他仅受工程师想象力限制的应用中的作用。 此外，该项目还将为工程教育提供一个低成本环境友好过程开发的例子。 除了商业上的成功，SOMERC背后的科学将成为电化学和过程工程教育案例研究的基础