Production of magnesium metal in magnesium chloride from salt lake is expected to be industrialized

The Qinghai Salt Lake Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences is responsible for the research project on the production of magnesium chloride from salt lakes for the production of metal magnesium. Recently, it has passed the inspection of experts from the Science and Technology Department of Qinghai Province. Experts believe that the research results are of great significance to promoting the development of magnesium resources in salt lakes and forming the magnesium industry.
This achievement made use of salt lake magnesium chloride and industrial by-product lime to produce magnesium metal, developed a new technology with independent intellectual property rights, applied for two national invention patents, of which one patent had been authorized by the state. At the same time, the new process can be used to synthesize the raw material “coke white” for the production of magnesium metal by the Pidgeon process, thereby overcoming the disadvantages of the traditional Pidgeon process that emits large amounts of carbon dioxide and sulfide gas, achieving clean production in one fell swoop, and also large The reduction in the calcination temperature of “calcined white” shortens the reduction time and makes the traditional Peijiang method basically meet the requirements of circular economy and low-carbon economy. At present, the metal magnesium ingot samples prepared by using this technology have reached the requirements of the national standard (GB/T3499-2003) Mg9995 grades, and can produce 99.99% of high-purity magnesium, which is expected to be industrialized.
According to reports, at present, domestic production of magnesium metal is almost entirely using the Pidgeon method, and this is also the main process technology for the production of magnesium metal in the world. Although this process has the advantages of low investment, low production cost, short construction period, and easy control, it has serious pollution in the production process. However, the preparation process of anhydrous magnesium chloride used in the electrolysis process is harsh and the dehydration of magnesium chloride is difficult. Although many years of technical research, but the electrolytic production of magnesium metal technology has not been able to achieve industrial applications.
It is understood that Qinghai Chaerhan Salt Lake contains more than 4 billion tons of magnesium resources and is the world's largest magnesium resource. The development of the rich magnesium resources here and the formation of a unique domestic magnesium industry have become the focus of the development of salt lake resources in Qinghai Province. To this end, the Ministry of Science and Technology of Qinghai Province in 2008 deployed a provincial key scientific and technological research projects - salt lake magnesium chloride production of magnesium metal cleaning process research.