ABSTRACT

Molten oxide electrolysis can be used to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions from ironmaking. In this paper, we electrochemically decompose iron oxide (Fe₂O₃) into iron (Fe) and oxygen (O₂) using boron trioxide and sodium oxide (B₂O₃–Na₂O) as the molten oxide electrolyte at 1000°C that is less than the temperature of other molten oxide electrolysis. The formation of Fe at the cathode and O₂ at the anode is identified by analysing products from both electrodes. The results suggest that the cathodic current efficiency of electrolysis at 2 V is about 54.7%, energy consumption is about 5.27 kW h kg^–1 of Fe at 2 V electrolysis, and purity of the reduced Fe was more than 97 mol.%. With respect to the process temperature and product yield, B₂O₃–Na₂O molten oxide has potential as a supporting electrolyte to reduce Fe₂O₃ to Fe without consuming any carbon.

摘要

熔融氧化物电解可用于减少炼铁产生的二氧化碳排放。在本文中，我们以三氧化硼和氧化钠（B ₂ O ₃ -Na ₂ O）作为熔融氧化物电解质在1000°C下将氧化铁（Fe ₂ O ₃）电化学分解为铁（Fe）和氧（O ₂）。C小于其他熔融氧化物电解的温度。通过分析两个电极的产物，可以确定在阴极形成Fe并在阳极形成O ₂。结果表明，在2 V时电解的阴极电流效率约为54.7％，能耗约为5.27 kW h kg ^–1在2 V电解条件下，Fe的纯度为97％（摩尔）。关于工艺温度和产品产率，B ₂ O ₃ -Na ₂ O熔融氧化物具有作为支持电解质的潜力，可以在不消耗任何碳的情况下将Fe ₂ O ₃还原为Fe。