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Title: Magnesium Recycling of Partially Oxidized, Mixed Magnesium-Aluminum Scrap through Combined Refining and Solid Oxide Membrane Electrolysis Processes

Journal Article · · ECS Transactions
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1149/1.3702859· OSTI ID:1047696

Pure magnesium (Mg) is recycled from 19g of partially oxidized 50.5wt.% Mg-Aluminum (Al) alloy. During the refining process, potentiodynamic scans (PDS) were performed to determine the electrorefining potential for magnesium. The PDS show that the electrorefining potential increases over time as the magnesium content inside the Mg-Al scrap decreases. Up to 100% percent of magnesium is refined from the Mg-Al scrap by a novel refining process of dissolving magnesium and its oxide into a flux followed by vapor phase removal of dissolved magnesium and subsequently condensing the magnesium vapor. The solid oxide membrane (SOM) electrolysis process is employed in the refining system to enable additional recycling of magnesium from magnesium oxide (MgO) in the partially oxidized Mg-Al scrap. The combination of the refining and SOM processes yields 7.4g of pure magnesium.

Research Organization:
Metal Oxygen Separation Technologies, Inc.
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
DOE Contract Number:
EE0003454
OSTI ID:
1047696
Report Number(s):
DOE/EE/0003454-4
Journal Information:
ECS Transactions, Vol. 41, Issue 31; Conference: 220th ECS Meeting Boston, MA, October 9 - October 14, 2011
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English