Corrosion-resistant coolant salt and method for making same
AssigneeTerraPower, LLC
InventorBrian C. Kelleher
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
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.
Claims19
A method for manufacturing an MgCl2—X salt comprising:
- providing an MgCl2—X salt containing one or more impurities;
- combining the MgCl2—X salt containing the one or more impurities with solid Mg metal to obtain a salt-Mg mixture;
- mixing the salt-Mg mixture at a first temperature above both a melting point of the MgCl2—X salt and a melting point of the solid Mg metal to obtain a liquid salt-Mg mixture containing at least one reacted impurity;
- and
- cooling the liquid salt-Mg mixture containing at least one reacted impurity to a second temperature below the melting point of the solid Mg metal but above the melting point of MgCl2—X salt to obtain a) a precipitate containing the at least one reacted impurity and any excess Mg and b) a liquid phase Mg-reduced MgCl2—X salt.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.