Apparatus and method for making metal chloride salt product
AssigneeUnited States of America Department of Energy
InventorsWilliam E. Miller, Zygmunt Tomczuk, Michael K. Richmann
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method of producing metal chlorides is disclosed in which chlorine gas is introduced into liquid Cd. CdCl2 salt is floating on the liquid Cd and as more liquid CdCl2 is formed it separates from the liquid Cd metal and dissolves in the salt. The salt with the CdCl2 dissolved therein contacts a metal which reacts with CdCl2 to form a metal chloride, forming a mixture of metal chloride and CdCl2. After separation of bulk Cd from the salt, by gravitational means, the metal chloride is obtained by distillation which removes CdCl2 and any Cd dissolved in the metal chloride.
Claims12
A method of producing metal chlorides in a chlorinator vessel, comprising;
- establishing an upper layer which is initially of liquid CdCl2 on a lower liquid Cd layer,
- adding chlorine gas to said lower liquid Cd layer to form new liquid CdCl2 where said newly formed liquid CdCl2 has a lower density than liquid Cd and is essentially insoluble in liquid Cd, thus rises into the upper layer,
- submerging a porous basket agitator and a lower opening of a slug chute, which is positioned above said basket agitator, in said upper layer initially of CdCl2,
- selecting a metal to form said metal chloride such that a free energy of formation of the metal chloride is more negative than that for CdCl2 per chlorine atom and where a boiling point of said metal chloride is greater than that of CdCl2 resulting in the metal chloride being less volatile than CdCl2 or Cd,
- depositing said selected metal used to form said metal chloride through said slug chute into said basket agitator,
- contacting liquid CdCl2 in the upper layer with said metal in a sufficient time to react said metal with the liquid CdCl2 to form a metal chloride and Cd in the upper layer,
- coordinating a rate of chlorine addition with a rate of metal addition to control a combined exothermic reaction ensuing from the addition of Cl2 to Cd and the formation of the metal chloride so that a temperature associated with said upper layer is in a range of 600° C. to 700° C.,
- settling the formed Cd from the upper layer after the contacting step to recombine the formed Cd with the lower liquid Cd layer and removing the remaining upper layer from the chlorinator vessel,
- and employing a distillation process to separate the newly formed metal chloride from the removed upper layer.
A method of producing select metal chlorides in a chlorinator, comprising;
- introducing chlorine gas into liquid Cd, establishing an upper layer which is initially liquid CdCl2 and is positioned above and in contact with the liquid Cd where the Cl reacts with the Cd to replenish the CdCl2 which is used to form the metal chloride,
- selecting metals for chlorination which have a free energy of formation of the chloride which is more negative than that for CdCl2 and which have boiling points higher than a boiling point for CdCl2 resulting in the metal chloride being less volatile than the CdCl2 or the Cd,
- placing the metal or metals in a porous basket agitator and depositing said porous basket agitator in the upper layer where one or more of the selected metals which reacts with the CdCl2 in said upper layer to form a metal chloride or chlorides producing a mixed upper layer,
- providing relative movement between CdCl2 and the metal or metals to be reacted, removing said mixed upper layer from the chlorinator, and
- separating the metal chloride or chlorides formed from the CdCl2 in the mixed upper layer by a distillation process.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.