Corrosion-resistant coolant salt and method for making same
AssigneeTerraPower, LLC
InventorBrian C. Kelleher
Life of this patent
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Abstract
This document describes a method for reducing the corrosivity of certain magnesium salts. The salt product resulting from the method exhibits reduced corrosion of steels that come into contact with the salt relative to salt compositions that are not so treated. This makes such treated salts more efficient coolant salts as they will require less equipment replacement over time. The method uses magnesium metal to reduce unwanted impurities in the salts the reduced impurities are then removed as either gas or precipitate from the now purified salt. Without being bound to one particular theory, it is believed that the reduction of the level of impurities in the salt results in a salt with substantially reduced corrosiveness to steel.
Claims15
A method for removing at least one impurity from a NaCl—MgCl2 salt, the method comprising:
- combining the NaCl—MgCl2 salt containing the at least one impurity with solid Mg metal in a vessel at a first temperature to obtain a salt-Mg combination, the first temperature being below a melting point of the solid Mg metal;
- heating the salt-Mg combination in the vessel to a second temperature above a melting point of the NaCl—MgCl2 salt and the melting point of the solid Mg metal to obtain a liquid salt-Mg mixture containing at least one reacted impurity, the second temperature being up to 800° C.;
- cooling the liquid salt-Mg mixture in the vessel to a third temperature below the melting point of the solid Mg metal but above the melting point of NaCl—MgCl2 salt to obtain a) a precipitate containing the at least one reacted impurity and any excess Mg and b) a liquid phase Mg-reduced NaCl—MgCl2 salt;
- and
- removing the liquid phase Mg-reduced NaCl—MgCl2 salt from the vessel.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.