Thermodynamic and Kinetic Modelling of Molten Oxide Electrolysis Cells

Direct electrolytic extraction of molten iron from its oxide is an attractive alternative technology for reducing, or eliminating, greenhouse gas emissions associated with iron and steelmaking. While significant progress has been made to develop the process on the laboratory and industrial scales, there is no information on the anticipated performance of large-scale molten oxide electrolysis cells in the open literature. In this work, we present a detailed thermodynamic and kinetic model to describe large-scale molten oxide electrolysis cells. The model simultaneously considers the effect of different thermodynamic and kinetic parameters to predict energy requirements (kW h/tonne) and throughput (tonnes/day) of electrolysis cells. In instances where existing technical or engineering information is absent for molten oxide electrolysis cells, analogy was drawn to Hall-Héroult cells for aluminum electrolysis.