| Materials Flowcharts |
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| There is a synergy between molten silicate electrolysis (magma electrolysis) and magnesium smelting. The magma units produce FeSi for reducting MgO obtained by boiling mare regolith at 1500 C. and higher and condensing it. CaO flux furnaces not only supply flux for iron and steel making but for Mg smelting also. Plain silicon from magma electro is saved for solar panels. The magma units and cast basalt from solar furnaces are used to make more magma units and various other furnaces for industrial expansion on the Moon. Nickel and cobalt from iron fines allow us to make high temp. super alloy pipes for furnaces. Also, nickel is a catalyst for shifthing CO off gas to CH4 by the reaction: CO + 3H2 ===> CH4 + H2O CH4 + heat (900 C.) ===> C + 2H2 H2O + electrolysis ===> H2 + O This how we recycle carbon black. Silicothermic magnesium reduction is done at 1200 to 1500 C. Cast basalt from solar furnaces and ceramic blocks from magma units are used to make furnaces of all sorts. Fused titanium dioxide, TiO2, can make seconday mirrors for solar furnaces with reflector set ups sort of like a reflector telescope. At first we will land big aluminized mylar umbrella like reflectors and secondaries. My first suggestiong for secondary mirrors was chromium, m.p. 1900 C. since secondaries will have to bear high thermal stress loads because they don't reflect 100%. But chromium will be hard to get in the early days of industrialiization, and TiO2 reflects 90 to 95% of the light that falls on it and it's m.p. is 1900-2000 C. So a sintered blank of TiO2 could have it's surface melted, allowed to harden, then polished to make an excellent reflector with in situ materials. |
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| David A. Dietzler, 2007 |
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| EMEC process with 2500 tons anorthite input/yr. yeilds 500 tons/yr CaO and several hundred tons Al. CaO can reduce alumina content if DRI furnace flux and slag. |
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| Best processes might be: 1) scavenging volatiles and iron fines that also bear nickel and cobalt . 2) volcanic glass mining for sulfur, chlorine, zinc, copper, gallium and possibly iron, nickel and oxgyen. 3) titanium by H2 redux and FFC process 4) magma electrolysis for ceramic blocks, Fe and Si 5) silicothermic reduction of magnesium minerals 6) roasting anorthostic regolith to get Na, K, FeO, SiO2, MgO and cement mix or CaAl2O4 7) direct electrolyis of CaAl2O4 to obtain aluminum metal and lime-CaO. That's just about everything but chromium and maganese. |
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| At Blister Steel I estimated that 200 tons of iron fines could be mined and beneficiated every lunar day and be converted to steel for 2400 tons of steel per year and 24,000 tons, three Eiffel Tower's worth, in ten years. If we also extract nickel and cobalt that will slow things down a bit; however, the Sun shines for months at a time near the south pole. One might argue that we should just leave the Ni and Co in the iron but the concentrations are so low it won't help the steel much, so it's best to extract them with recycled hot CO gas and use them for everything from nickel based super alloys to turbine blades to machine tools to glass tinting. See: NIckel and Cobalt. An 70 tons magma furnace using 3 MWe with a thruput of 5000 tons regolith per year could make 1000 tons O2, 1000 tons Si and 700 tons iron if my understanding is correct and over 2000 tons of ceramic blocks that could be used to make more furnaces (1). As we expand power supplies and build more magma furnaces iron production by electrolysis will outstrip mining for fines, but we will still mine for iron fines to get nickel and cobalt in addition to iron. The steel must be cleaned of silicon and sulfur contamination with CaAl2O4 flux not because the carbon is impure as in Earthly furnaces but because the iron fines are fused with silicates; hence the grinding, sieving and mag. sepping to get pure iron fines, but there might still be some silicon in there. Sulfur might come in in the form of troilite, FeS, of meteoric origing found all over the Moon when when we magnetically harvest iron fines from millions of tons of regolith. |
| 1) Development of the Moon. Michael B. Duke et al. section 4.3.5.1 pg. 40 http://www.lpi.usra.edu/lunar_resources/developmentofmoon.pdf |