Industrial Scale-Up of Low-Cost Zero-Emissions Magnesium by INFINIUM Electrolysis
- INFINIUM, Inc., Natick, MA (United States)
INFINIUM led a project whose goal was at first to produce pure magnesium, and later magnesium-rare earth alloys, directly from oxides. The reduction technology is molten salt electrolysis with a fluoride salt bath, similar to the Hall-Héroult process for aluminum. The pure magnesium component of the project used novel oxygen-producing anodes with a zirconia solid electrolyte tube between the molten salt and anode. The project later shifted to direct production of magnesium-neodymium master alloy for Mg-rare earth alloys. These alloys are typically made by dissolution of rare earth metals into magnesium, and cost over six times the rare earth basis price of the master alloy. The resulting process produced a total of over 30 kg of Mg-Nd master alloy, which was made into nearly 250 kg of AE42 (Mg-4%Al-2%Nd) alloy.
- Research Organization:
- INFINIUM, Inc., Natick, MA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Vehicle Technologies Office (EE-3V)
- Contributing Organization:
- Praxair Inc., Danbury, CT (United States); Spartan Light Metal Products, St. Louis, MO (United States); Kingston Process Metallurgy Inc. (KPM), Kingston, ON (Canada); Boston Univ., MA (United States); Magna International Inc., Aurora, ON (Canada)
- DOE Contract Number:
- EE0005547
- OSTI ID:
- 1431302
- Report Number(s):
- INFINIUM-3008-VTP-Mg-Final-T2V3
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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