Ore dissolution and iron conversion system
AssigneeElectrasteel, Inc.
InventorsAi Quoc Pham, Sandeep Nijhawan, Adolfredo Alvarez, Steven Fatur
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Abstract
Methods and systems for dissolving an iron-containing ore are disclosed. For example, a method of processing and dissolving an iron-containing ore comprises: thermally reducing one or more non-magnetite iron oxide materials in the iron-containing ore to form magnetite in the presence of a reductant, thereby forming thermally-reduced ore; and dissolving at least a portion of the thermally-reduced ore using an acid to form an acidic iron-salt solution; wherein the acidic iron-salt solution comprises protons electrochemically generated in an electrochemical cell.
Claims25
A system for processing and dissolving an iron-containing ore, the system comprising:
- a first dissolution tank for dissolving a first iron-containing ore using a first acid solution;
- wherein:
- dissolution of the first iron-containing ore in the first acid solution forms a first acidic iron-salt solution comprising dissolved first Fe3+ ions in the first dissolution tank;
- an electrochemical cell fluidically connected to the first dissolution tank;
- wherein:
- the electrochemical cell comprises a cathode chamber having a catholyte in the presence of a cathode, an anode chamber having an anode, and a separator separating the cathode from the anode;
- wherein the first acid solution comprises a spent electrolyte from an iron plating cell;
- and
- wherein at least a portion of the first Fe3+ ions from the first acidic iron-salt solution are electrochemically reduced at the cathode to first Fe2+ ions in the catholyte.
A method for processing and dissolving an iron-containing ore, the method comprising:
- in a first dissolution tank, dissolving a first iron-containing ore using a first acid solution;
- wherein:
- dissolution of the first iron-containing ore in the first acid solution forms a first acidic iron-salt solution comprising dissolved first Fe3+ ions in the first dissolution tank;
- and
- wherein the first acid solution comprises a spent electrolyte from an iron plating cell, the spent electrolyte comprising dissolved second Fe3+ ions;
- and
- in an electrochemical acid regeneration cell, electrochemically reducing at least a portion of the first Fe3+ ions from the first acidic iron-salt solution to first dissolved Fe2+ ions and electrochemically reducing at least a portion of the second Fe3+ ions from the spent electrolyte to second dissolved Fe2+ ions.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.