0191-9067/81/030271-11S02.00/0 Copyright ® 1981 SUNSAT Energy Council MAGNESIUM REDUCTION PROCESSES FOR USE IN SPACE T.E. LEONTIS and L.E. VAALER BATTELLE Columbus Division Columbus. Ohio 43201 Abstract—Magnesium compounds are abundantly available on the lunar surface and are a source of magnesium metal that may be used to build structures in space, such as solar power stations. Conventional methods of producing magnesium metal are discussed, along with their energy requirements. The adaptability of these methods and their modifications to magnesium production in space are considered. INTRODUCTION The availability and use of magnesium in the scenario that is developing for an extraterrestrial plant to process lunar materials has been discussed by Waldron, Erstfeld, and Criswell (1). The abundance of aluminum and magnesium oxidic minerals on the lunar surface has been documented. It would be anticipated that aluminum alloys would be used extensively for space power stations and processing structures; and magnesium is an important constituent of structural aluminum alloys. The major terrestrial use of magnesium is in such alloys. Magnesium (alloyed with small amounts of other metals) could also be an important structural material in space if it were more readily produced than aluminum. The latter would probably not be produced by the Hall-Herault process most commonly used terrestrially because of the amount of consumable carbon required. Carbon dioxide is difficult to recycle back to carbon and carbon is not readily available from the lunar surface. The presently employed methods for terrestrial production of magnesium will be briefly discussed followed by an estimate of energy requirements. Adaptation of these methods and other experimental systems to space processing will then be discussed. COMMERCIAL METHODS Much of the following information is taken from a report prepared by Battelle’s Columbus Laboratories for Argonne National Laboratory (2), “A Survey of Electrochemical Metal Winning Processes.” This latter report was concerned with present and future energy use for metal winning processes. The principal processes by which primary magnesium can be produced are [1]
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