Metals from molten salts
14 Jul 2003
A new process to refine metals could reduce the cost of pure metals and make possible the production of previously-unobtainable alloys, according to Metalysis, a company spun off from Cambridge University.
Based around the techniques developed at the university's materials department, Metalysis's process has already yielded metals including chromium, tungsten, cobalt and silicon in a single step process.
The method is known as the FFC (Fray, Fathering and Chen) process, named after its inventors. An electrochemical technique, it uses a molten metal salt as the solvent for a metal oxide, which is reduced to the metal by an electric current.
Production of the metal is at a fraction of the price of conventional refining and, as it works without melting the metal, it offers the potential for making alloys which are currently unobtainiable by conventional furnace-based methods.
'Because the process is more efficient than traditional methods, we will greatly reduce environmental impact,' says Professor Derek Fray, head of the materials department, one of the originators of the process and a director of the company.
