月壤资源原位提取金属和制备氧气的方法与技术

Metals extraction and oxygen preparation processes for lunar regolith in-situ resources utilization

月球是太空探测活动研究最多的星球,是外星资源利用和生命探索的研究对象,月壤中有丰富的长石、钛铁矿和克里普岩等,利用现有的冶金技术可从中提取金属和氧气.本文总结热还原、高温分解、熔盐电解、湿法冶金和生物冶金等技术处理月壤提取金属和制备氧气的研究进展,分析各种方法的优势和短处,总结了未来月球冶金需要解决的技术难题和发展方向.结合已有的工作,提出铝热还原-惰性阳极熔盐电解法,在氟化物熔盐中溶解月壤和金属铝,使二者在熔盐介质中进行还原反应,并用惰性阳极电解,从月壤中提取到金属和制备氧气.通过处理明尼苏达大学月壤仿真样MLS-1和东北大学月壤仿真样NEU-1,获得Al-Si-Ti-Fe合金、金属铝和氧气,验证了方法的可行性.

The Moon is the most studied planet during the course of space exploration, and it is investigated for resources utilization and extraterrestrial life searching. There are substantial amount of anorthite, ilmenite, and KREEP ores inside the lunar regolith, from which metals and oxygen can be extracted by existing metallurgical technologies such as thermoreduction, pyrolysis, molten salt electrolysis, hydrometallurgy, and biometallurgy. In this paper, a comprehensive summary of research results of lunar metallurgy using those processes are introduced, their advantages and disadvantages are discussed, and the technical problems and development direction for future extraterrestrial metallurgy are summarized. According to the having done research, a process of aluminothermic reduction-inert anode molten salt electrolysis is proposed. By dissolving aluminum and lunar soil into fluoride molten salt, the dissolved aluminum and lunar soil simulant react each other, and metals and oxygen are prepared by electrolysis using inert anode. When using the MSL-1 and NEU-1 simulant synthesized by the University of Minnesota and Northeastern University as raw ores respectively, Al-Si-Ti-Fe alloy, aluminum, and oxygen were obtained, which verified the feasibility of the aluminothermic reduction-inert anode molten salt electrolysis process.