Electrolytic smelting system
AssigneeMitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.
InventorsTakashi Nakano, Ikumasa Koshiro
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An electrolytic smelting system includes: an electrolytic smelting furnace including a furnace body to which a molten ore is introduced, a cathode substrate which is installed on a bottom portion in the furnace body, and an anode substrate which is positioned above the cathode substrate in the furnace body; an inert gas circulation unit including a circulation line to recover an inert gas supplied into the electrolytic smelting furnace together with oxygen and supply the inert gas to the molten ore; and an oxygen-removing unit which is installed in the circulation line and which removes oxygen from the circulation line.
Claims14
An electrolytic smelting system comprising:
- an electrolytic smelting furnace including a furnace body to which a molten ore is introduced, a cathode substrate which is installed on a bottom portion in the furnace body, and an anode substrate which is positioned above the cathode substrate in the furnace body;
- an inert gas circulation unit including a circulation line configured to supply inert gas to the molten ore and to recover oxygen generated on an anode substrate side together with the inert gas as a mixed gas;
- and an oxygen-removing unit which is installed in the circulation line and configured to remove the oxygen from the circulation line, wherein the oxygen-removing unit is configured to remove the oxygen from the mixed gas of the inert gas and the oxygen recovered by the inert gas circulation unit, and is configured to reuse the inert gas, and the oxygen-removing unit includes a cell stack having a base pipe through which the inert gas and the oxygen are flowed and a fuel cell which is installed on an outer peripheral surface of the base pipe and which allows the oxygen in the base pipe to permeate to an outside of the base pipe in response to an applied voltage.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.