SBIR Phase I: Closed-Loop Lithium Reduction of Pure Scandium Metal

SBIR 第一阶段：纯钪金属的闭环锂还原

• 批准号: 1648081
• 负责人: Adam Powell
• 金额: $ 22.5万
• 依托单位: INFINIUM, Inc.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-12-15 至 2018-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1648081&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; Closed; Loop; Lithium

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project is to reduce the cost, and improve commercialization prospects, for new light-weight scandium-containing alloys with extraordinary strength, weldability, fitness for 3-D printing, and new shape memory and other properties. At $3500-4000/kg (6-7 times the price of silver), the price of scandium metal is more than twice the metals-basis price of its oxide, which is about $1800/kg. This has deterred commercial deployment of new alloys beyond small-scale laboratory demonstrations. As new scandium oxide mines and production facilities around the world boost production from just 10-15 tonnes per year (TPY) to several hundred tons per annum in the next 5-10 years, this will reduce the cost of the oxide. The new high-yield technology supported by this award aims to dramatically reduce the cost of converting oxide to metal, bridging the gap to make alloys with scandium more viable for high-performance applications. This in turn will enable new light-weight high-performance alloys to replace steel and titanium, dramatically reducing the weight of aerospace parts while improving strength.The technical objectives in this Phase I research project are to demonstrate feasibility at laboratory scale of key unit operations of a brand new production process for pure scandium metal production from its oxide. Because Scandium oxide is the most stable oxide in the periodic table, reduction to the metal first requires reaction with hydrofluoric acid (HF) at 700C to produce scandium fluoride, then metallothermic reduction using calcium metal at 1600C in a welded refractory metal retort (usually tantalum). Calcium metal is a contaminant which must be removed by distillation. These operations result in a price of scandium metal at $3500-4000/kg, which is more than twice the metals-basis cost of its oxide ($1200/kg Scandium oxide leads to $1840/kg Sc). The new process funded by this award will avoid any use of HF, making it safer and less costly. It will retain very close to 100% of the scandium and other reagents in a tight closed-loop system, reducing emissions and costs. If successful with scandium, this method will readily apply to heavy rare earth and metals such as gadolinium, dysprosium and yttrium.

该小企业创新研究第一阶段项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是降低成本并改善新型轻质含钪合金的商业化前景，这些合金具有非凡的强度、可焊性、适合 3D 打印以及新的形状记忆和其他特性。金属钪的价格为 3500-4000 美元/公斤（白银价格的 6-7 倍），是其氧化物金属基价格（约 1800 美元/公斤）的两倍多。这阻碍了新合金在小规模实验室演示之外的商业部署。随着世界各地新的氧化钪矿山和生产设施在未来 5-10 年内将产量从每年 10-15 吨 (TPY) 提高到每年数百吨，这将降低氧化物的成本。该奖项支持的新高产技术旨在大幅降低将氧化物转化为金属的成本，缩小差距，使钪合金更适合高性能应用。这反过来将使新型轻质高性能合金能够取代钢和钛，从而在提高强度的同时大幅减轻航空航天部件的重量。该第一阶段研究项目的技术目标是在实验室规模上证明从氧化物生产纯钪金属的全新生产工艺的关键单元操作的可行性。由于氧化钪是元素周期表中最稳定的氧化物，还原成金属首先需要在 700°C 下与氢氟酸 (HF) 反应生成氟化钪，然后在焊接难熔金属罐（通常是钽）中使用金属钙在 1600°C 下进行金属热还原。金属钙是一种必须通过蒸馏除去的污染物。这些操作导致金属钪的价格为 3500-4000 美元/千克，这是其氧化物金属成本的两倍多（1200 美元/千克氧化钪导致 1840 美元/千克钪）。该奖项资助的新工艺将避免使用任何氟化氢，使其更安全、成本更低。它将在紧密的闭环系统中保留接近 100% 的钪和其他试剂，从而减少排放和成本。如果对钪成功，该方法将很容易适用于重稀土和钆、镝和钇等金属。