Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT) (방사성폐기물학회지)

Korean Radioactive Waste Society (한국방사성폐기물학회)
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Molten Salt-Based Carbon-Neutral Critical Metal Smelting Process From Oxide Feedstocks

  • Wan-Bae Kim (Chungnam National University) ;
  • Woo-Seok Choi (Chungnam National University) ;
  • Gyu-Seok Lim (Chungnam National University) ;
  • Vladislav E. Ri (Chungnam National University) ;
  • Soo-Haeng Cho (Rapidly Solidified Materials Research Center (RASOM), Chungnam National University) ;
  • Suk-Cheol Kwon (Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources) ;
  • Hayk Nersisyan (Rapidly Solidified Materials Research Center (RASOM), Chungnam National University) ;
  • Jong-Hyeon Lee (Chungnam National University)
  • Received : 2022.08.04
  • Accepted : 2022.11.03
  • Published : 2023.03.31
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Abstract

Spin-off pyroprocessing technology and inert anode materials to replace the conventional carbon-based smelting process for critical materials were introduced. Efforts to select inert anode materials through numerical analysis and selected experimental results were devised for the high-throughput reduction of oxide feedstocks. The electrochemical properties of the inert anode material were evaluated, and stable electrolysis behavior and CaCu generation were observed during molten salt recycling. Thereafter, CuTi was prepared by reacting rutile (TiO2) with CaCu in a Ti crucible. The formation of CuTi was confirmed when the concentration of CaO in the molten salt was controlled at 7.5mol%. A laboratory-scale electrorefining study was conducted using CuTi(Zr, Hf) alloys as the anodes, with a Ti electrodeposit conforming to the ASTM B299 standard recovered using a pilot-scale electrorefining device.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by a National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korean Government (Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning) (NRF-2017M2B2B1072889), partially supported by the Materials/Parts Technology Development Program (20010585, High purity metal refining technology for titanium metal with zero toxic gas emission) funded by the Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy (MOTIE, Korea) and also Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology (KIAT) grant funded by the Korea Government (MOTIE) (P0002019, The Competency Development Program for Industry Specialist).

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