Integrated thermionic diode and molten oxide electrolysis cell

Abstract

A method and system for producing and collecting oxygen gas using molten oxide electrolysis is presented. The system includes a refractory vessel to hold molten oxide material, an anode, a cathode, and a thermionic diode at a top portion of the refractory vessel. The anode for the electrolysis cell (e.g., the anode and cathode that are positioned in the vessel to perform electrolysis) has a dual function by also acting as the cathode of the thermionic diode. Among other things, the presence of the thermionic diode may limit the direction of electrical current flow so that current only flows from the anode to the cathode of the electrolysis cell. This directional limitation provides an advantage in that an AC power source of the MOE system need not be rectified or converted to DC before powering the MOE system.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.