ELECTROLYTE RECOVERY AND LIFETIME CONTROL - EXPRO PLUS

To minimise salt loss, to optimise salt stability and to enable salt regeneration/purification for themolten salt electrolysis process.DescriptionThe Fray Farthing Chen (FFC) Cambridge process and similar Molten Salt Electrolysis (MSE)processes, including the Regolith to OXYgen and Metals Conversion (ROXY) process, are potentialgame changing approaches to making resources available in alunar environment, i.e. the oxygenand metals which are chemically bound to lunar and planetary regolith/ bedrock.To operate an MSE based In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) process on planetary surfaces, withthe minimum need of resupply of consumables, the salt/electrolyte recovery, stability andregeneration are of utmost importance for the sustainability of the in-situ process.To successfully apply this process for ISRU, essential aspects to be understood include: the saltrecovery from the porous reduced feed stockmaterial, as well as the salt regeneration/purificationfrom processing immanent contaminants, and from degradation products. Thesefactors are key toachieving a long-term stable process for a prospected stationary production, which is furtherchallenged with the cost and opportunities for resupply of important process.The activity includes the following tasks:- Consolidate the electrolyteconservation and energy requirements, considering existingknowledge on the electrolyte stability.- Perform a trade-off of the most promising aspects of electrolyte reclamation and purificationfor a range of MSE processes- Select the most appropriatetechnological approaches (e.g. distillation, regenerationtechniques from a gas, liquid solid)- Design an integrated electrolytereclamationand purification system into a molten saltelectrolysis process, accounting for adequate material selection and method to activelypump/exchange the salt during the process- Manufacture a salt recovery breadboard system that is integrated with a MSE cell- Characterise and optimise the recovery process using the breadboard testing and validation.