Aluminum Extractor from Clay Concept
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It has been suggested that the text below be merged into (added to) the [[::Aluminum Extractor|Aluminum Extractor]] page. (Discuss)
This is a machine for processing clay, an abundant feedstock in many parts of the world (already in fine particles) into Aluminum - a high value, industrial metal. Note the energy requirement:
- About 15kW-hours requirement for 1 kg aluminum produced (1.5 kg diesel energy equivalent at 100% conversion). About 1 gallon fuel consumption per kilogram of aluminum produced assuming 30% conversion of diesel to electrolysis current- super energy intensive if done with traditional fuels
- Process design for producing 1 ton of aluminum per day
- Fueled by Solar Concentrator electrical power, and Modern Steam Engine as backup only, for economic sense on a micro-scale
- About 300kW energy requirement for 24 hours per day - huge
- Practical conversion: 2 acres of biomass fuel required to produce 1 ton of aluminum per year
- For 15MW-hours of energy per year - solar concentrator requres under 100 square meters of area to fuel this production (assuming 10% solar conversion efficiency). Less than 1/40th of an acre. 100 times as area efficient as biomass.
- About 100 grams of hydroflouric acid are required in a closed loop cycle to carry out the first hydrofluoric acid leaching process phase of aluminosilicate to alumina
- Second phase is standard Hall-Héroult electrolysis.
- Approximately a 6000 square foot facility is required for housing the above process.
Strategically speaking - lunar regolith and Mars settlers are quite interested in this. This process has been developed for extraterrestrial applications initially, where there may be no bauxite.
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