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

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.