Proving the Viability of an Electrochemical Process for the Simultaneous Extraction of Oxygen and Production of Metal Alloys from Lunar Regolith

Tuesday, 15 October 2019: 11:00
Room 305 (The Hilton Atlanta)
M. Symes, B. Lomax (University of Glasgow), M. Conti, N. Khan (Metalysis), N. Bennett (Heriot-Watt University), and A. Ganin (University of Glasgow)
The development of an efficient process to simultaneously extract oxygen and metals from lunar regolith by way of in-situ resource utilisation (ISRU) has the potential to enable sustainable exploration beyond Earth. The Metalysis (FFC Cambridge) process can electrochemically reduce a wide range of metal oxides to produce metals and alloys for powdered metallurgy and additive manufacturing, with the co-generation of oxygen at the anode. In this talk, we will demonstrate proof-of-concept for the electro-deoxidation of powdered lunar regolith by a Metalysis-FFC approach to produce oxygen and metal alloys. The resulting metallic powder was found to contain only a very small percentage of oxygen (a portion of which was due to post electrolysis surface re-oxidation) and to consist primarily of Al/Fe(-Si), Fe/Si(-Ti/Al), and Ca/Si/Al(-Mg) alloys. The challenges and opportunities for the Metalysis-FFC process for lunar ISRU will be discussed in light of the results presented in this talk.