SBIR Phase II: A New Molten-Oxide Electrochemical Process for Producing Primary Iron and Ferrochromium

这个小企业创新研究第二阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是推动知识和工业实践向更清洁，更便宜，更环保的钢铁和不锈钢发展。 该项目将专注于生产铁，这是全球1.1万亿美元年市场的一部分，以及铬铁，全球年市场为22亿美元。 实验室规模的惰性阳极熔融氧化物电解已被证明可以生产低碳铁和铁合金，这是许多高性能钢的基础。 目前的低碳金属价格较高。 公布的成本模型表明，莫伊的资本和运营成本将低于市场上已有的竞争技术。 莫伊还可以减少生产这些金属对环境的影响，即使使用今天的电力，并且可以使用可再生能源产生更大的改善。 总而言之，莫伊将以较低的成本和较低的环境影响生产比现有方法更高质量的初级金属。该第二阶段研究项目的目标是开发一种更便宜，更节能的生产重要金属（包括铁和铬铁）的方法。通过熔融氧化物电解（莫伊）将这些金属从其矿石中经济地分离是通过最近发明的惰性阳极材料实现的。理解新型惰性阳极在莫伊中的行为的关键下一步是比实验室电池中可能的更长持续时间的测试。这种测试只能在更大的规模上实现。第一阶段中的替代系统模型和测试表明了在第二阶段中提供这种长期测试的方法。 这些试验将为莫伊工业规模生产铁和铬铁指明方向。

The broader impact / commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research Phase II project is to advance the state of knowledge and industrial practice toward cleaner, cheaper, greener steel and stainless steel. The project will focus on the production of iron, part of a $1.1 trillion annual market worldwide, and ferrochromium, a $2.2 billion worldwide annual market. Molten oxide electrolysis with an inert anode has been demonstrated at the laboratory scale to produce low-carbon iron and ferroalloys, which are the basis of many high-performance steels. The current low-carbon metals sell at a premium. Published cost models show that both the capital and operating cost of MOE will be lower than competing technologies already in the marketplace. MOE can also reduce the environmental impact of producing these metals, even with today's electricity, and can produce even greater improvements with renewable energy. In summary, MOE will produce primary metals of higher quality at a lower cost and with lower environmental impact than current methods.The objective of this Phase II research project is to develop a cheaper, more energy efficient route to production of important metals including iron and ferrochromium. Economical separation of these metals from their ores by molten oxide electrolysis (MOE) is enabled by the recent invention of an inert anode material. The essential next step in understanding the behavior of the new inert anode in MOE is longer-duration testing than was possible in the laboratory cell. This test can only be achieved at a larger scale. The models and testing on surrogate systems in Phase I have shown the way to provide this long-duration testing in Phase II. These tests will point the way toward industrial-scale production of iron and ferrochromium by MOE.