| MOONDUST REFINNING PROCESSES AND DEVICES We've got these processes for regolith refinning: unfluxed electrolysis (iron, ferrosilicon, silicon, oxygen, spinel ceramic blocks, possibly magnesium. A 70 ton unit with a thru put of 5000 tons/year yields 1000 tons oxygen and uses 3.5 MWe); fluxed electrolysis (silicon, aluminum, calcium, oxygen, similar power demand and mass as unfluxed). We can scale these down for upport and maybe even make 'em on the Moon. H2SO4 leaching ( a bunch of stuff including Al, Mg and Na when you add further processing like solar carbothermal reduction or carbochlorination of Al2O3 and electrolysis, silicothermic redux of MgO, and a Downs cell to convert salt to sodium metal and recycled chlorine), H2 redux to get TiO2 and an FFC cell to electrolyze TiO2 to titanium metal, and ferrochrome ( we don't need pure chrominum, we can just add ferrochrome to steel to make stainless steel and ferrochrome is also a catalyst) by solar carbothermal reduction of chromite. Carbon can be recycled and reused using sabatier reactors and hydrogen. Iron from electrolysis and free iron fines can be converted to steel simply by using the cementation process (blister steel, or crucible steel if you will). So we've got Ox, Si, Fe and steel, Ca, Al, Mg, Na and compounds of them and K in sulfate form at least in addition to Ti, ferrochrome and volatiles. The only thing missing is manganese and it would help to know how to extract the REEs. As for copper, zinc and other metals present only in traces, bioleaching might be the answer. There might be ways to get trace minerals out by electrostatic separation. Imagine a thin stream of regolith falling from a hopper funnel and a laser shining on it not to disintegrate or heat things up to 6000 K (that's too hot!) but only to charge specific trace minerals that are then attracted to a charged electric plate. Once we get the pure mineral a few chemical steps are all that's needed to get the metal it contains. 1.So we need volatile harvesting tractors, cooling and distillation devices to separate the volatiles and storage tanks, 2.a magnetic separator, two or more electrolysis units plus flux (LiF, CaL2), 3.H2SO4 leaching vats, piping, valves, space radiator and pumps; electrostatic separators, solar furnace to melt "de-ironed" highland regolith to a glass and grinders and screens, a Downs cell, a Castner-Kellner cell with mercury, solar furnaces to roast sulfates to oxides and pipes back to H2SO4 reforming with V2O5 catalyst, 4.solar carbothermal retort and reflector or carbochlorination and electrolysis devices for aluminum or just throw the Al2O3 from acid leaching in the fluxed electrolysis units, 5.silicothermic Mg reduction retort and solar reflector, 6.a CARBOTEK fluidized bed for H2 redux of ilmenite (and H2O electrolysis cells), fine grinders to bust up fused particles of iron and TiO2 and magnetic separator to remove iron, FFC cell to reduce TiO2 to titanium metal, 7.solar carbothermic retort for chromite to get ferrochrome for stainless steel, 8.Sabatier reactors and hydrogen to shift CO2 to CH4 that is then decomposed with heat to pure carbon for reuse, 9.solar furnaces to heat highland regolith to 2000-2200 K to increase it's CaO content and with a little CaSO4 we've got Portland cement. 10.We will need electric heating elements for crucible steel furnaces and a small rolling mill to roll some iron into flat strips that we convert to steel then we use that steel to build a bigger rolling mill for bigger sheets of steel. There's probably more, but his is basically it for regolith refinning. What we need to do now is figure up that masses of all this and figure out how to make as much of it as we can on the Moon. And we will need lots of solar panels and equipment for making them, cables, switches, circuit breakers, invertors, transformers, etc. |
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