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Thermal Electrolytic Production of Mg from MgO: Reflections on Commercial Viability

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Magnesium Technology 2015

Abstract

We are exploring the commercial viability for producing Mg from MgO for which thermal energy is supplied to the cell as a substitute for some electric energy. The thermal input source may be concentrated sunlight or natural gas. Laboratory-scale electrochemical studies near 1250 K for two cell concepts show that we reached current densities above 0.5 A-cm−2at an overvoltage of 1.0 V. Current efficiency values exceeded 80%. The discussion of the relationship between these bench-top experimental results and the industrial potential of the process has been initiated.

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© 2015 TMS (The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society)

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Palumbo, R. et al. (2015). Thermal Electrolytic Production of Mg from MgO: Reflections on Commercial Viability. In: Manuel, M.V., Singh, A., Alderman, M., Neelameggham, N.R. (eds) Magnesium Technology 2015. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48185-2_11

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