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Magnesium Corporation of America has the ongoing success of the process. The mental chlorine issues at the facility. This
completed a development program designed use of older electrolysis technology, how- technical project had two distinct com-
to improve the performance efficiency of the ever, has led to increased labor and en- ponents: the improvement of magne-
electrolysis system and eliminate operating ergy expenses, along with increased en- sium-chloride cell feed purity and im-
chlorine losses. This work has culminated vironmental losses of chlorine. To re- provement of electrolyzer performance.
in the recent modernization of the process. solve the problems, the company has The feed-purity project was directed to-
The conversion has provided a number of modernized its electrolysis process, im- ward the cost-effective reduction of oxy-
operating benefits including significant re- proving efficiency and reducing costs. gen, iron, and carbon in the MgCl2 cell
ductions in labor costs, energy costs, main- feed. The electrolysis project involved
MODERNIZATION OBJECTIVES
tenance costs, and environmental releases. designing and evaluating various
This paper will review the development, A modernization program was initi- electrolyzer concepts that would reduce
design, environmental impact, and cost ben- ated six years ago to improve produc- energy consumption, eliminate chlorine
efit of the project. tion efficiency and to eliminate environ- losses, and require less operating labor.
The technical objectives would
INTRODUCTION
need to be carried out in a
MagCorp, the oldest primary brownfield installation with
magnesium producer in the minimal interruption to ongo-
United States, has operated elec- ing magnesium production. The
trolytic processes for 30 years. At cost of the project would need to
its Utah production facility, the be significantly more favorable
Great Salt Lake provides unique than a greenfield project.
advantages in preparing of
SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT
MgCl 2 for electrolysis. The
MagCorp production process Development of the feed-pu-
uses the anhydrous magnesium- rity project included a thorough
chloride preparation method, review of the options available
which was developed through a to meet the objectives. The exist-
combination of pilot plant data ing MagCorp process utilizes
and empirical optimization. Us- continuous magnesium-chloride
ing solar recovery of brine from chlorinators with a high through-
the Great Salt Lake, a pure mag- put capacity. This productivity
nesium-chloride brine is col- is realized through the use of
lected at a low cost. After several proper reactant control as well
chemical treatment steps, MgSO4 as iron-chloride reaction inter-
is converted and boron impuri- mediates. Elimination of the re-
ties removed. The purified brine sidual carbon and iron from the
is then flash-dried to remove the reaction has been a major tech-
majority of water before the ma- nical obstacle. Work that began
terial is carbo-chlorinated to Figure 1. MagCorp process flow sheet. in 1996 to determine the best
eliminate all residual oxygen methods to remove these impu-
content. rities culminated in the addition of a
The carbo-chlorination process pro- chlorination component to the process.
duces a molten magnesium-chloride Cl2 Gas to Impure This chlorination step utilized a propri-
feedstock for use in several types of Recovery/ MgCl2 Inlet etary technique of vertical chlorination,
monopolar electrolyzers that have been Recycle which was found to be efficient from
installed in the Rowley facility. These both a cost and a process perspective.
designs include magnesium cells with The electrolysis project began with a
and without diaphragms. The major review of available technical options.
products from the electrolysis area in- Eleven different electrolyzer concepts
Proprietary were tested over a three-year period be-
clude chlorine gas, which is reused in Contact Area
the process or sold, and magnesium fore a final design was chosen. The selec-
metal, which is vacuum harvested and tion criteria included overall perfor-
directed to the casting plant. Recovered mance, operating simplicity, ruggedness,
metal is refined, alloyed, and cast into and projected maintenance costs.
more than 30 different product lines, Cl2 Gas Purified
MgCl2 Outlet MgCl2 PURIFICATION
including direct chilled billet. Inlet
PROJECT
The low cost of magnesium-chloride
production and the flexibility of the fa- The electrolytic production of magne-
cility casting system have contributed to Figure 2. A tertiary MgCl2 chlorinator. sium is a complex process that can be
0.5
optimized through thorough 0.4 0.40 practical designs of magnesium
field testing. The final product 0.3 0.25 0.27 electrolyzers, including mono-
incorporated a rugged design 0.2 0.18 0.17 polar diaphragm units, monopolar
0.1 0.10 0.11
with appropriate gas intro- 0.05 0.01 0.0 diaphragmless units, and multi-
0.0
duction, liquid distribution 1980 1990 2000 polar units. All of these electro-
(molten MgCl 2 ), efficient MgO Fe C Total lyzers can be designed to operate
contactor area, and appropri- at various power levels and inter-
Figure 5. Historical cell feed impurity levels. electrode distances. Small design
ate offgas handling for recy-
cling the high-strength chlo- changes can induce significant dif-
0.6
Fraction of Historical Area Cost
changer or alternating current heat- tem. Maintenance requirements have R.L. Thayer is vice president of operations and R.
ing system Neelameggham is a technical development scientist at
been reduced 60%. At less than $0.11/ Magnesium Corporation of America.
• Improved chlorine compartment in- kg Mg, cell-rebuild expenses associ-
For more information, contact R.L. Thayer, Mag-
tegrity ated with the M cells are competitive nesium Corporation of America, Operations
A comparison of the historical perfor- with advanced cell designs in other Building, 238 North 2200 West, Salt Lake City,
mances of the major MagCorp operations. Utah 84116 USA; fax (801) 596-1132; e-mail
electrolyzer designs is shown in Table I. • Environmental—Environmental rthayer@magnesiumcorp.com.