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The Magnesium Ecosystemfor Next-Generation

Automobile Structures

Center for Resource Recovery and RecyclingGraduate Research Seminar

October 6, 2010

Adam C. Powell, IVCTO, Metal Oxygen Separation

Technologies (MOxST)

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Overview

● Industrial Ecology and Vehicle Recycling● Magnesium in Vehicle Structures● Metal Oxygen Separation Technologies

– SOM electolysis MOX→M+O

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– First markets: magnesium and silicon• Magnesium recycling and MOxST• Open source computational materials

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Vehicle Recycling System

• Shredder gets 5¢/lb for ferrous, 25¢/lb for non-ferrous

• Non-ferrous: copper and aluminum alloy separation today

• Impure metals due to mixing of streams

• Poisoned properties e.g. Cu in steel

End-of-life automobiles

Dismantler(salvage yard)

Shredder

Non-ferroussorter

Flattened auto bodies

Non-ferrous metals

TiresGas tankBatteryAir bag

Ferrousmetals

ASR

Copper

Aluminum

Other

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Automotive Magnesium

• USAMP “Magnesium Vision 2020”• Increase magnesium alloys from 10-15

lbs/vehicle to 350 lbs by 2020• Total weight of Mg parts to date: 370 lbs

(steering column, seat frame, IP beam, deck lid, transmission case, oil pan)

• Replace 630 lbs of aluminum and steel• More recyclable than polymers, composites• 1.6 MT potential market size!

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Magnesium for Light-Weight Vehicle Structures• Lowest-density workable metal• Easier to die cast than

aluminum: less shrinkage• Faster machining than steel

and aluminum• Better dent resistance and

noise/vibration damping• Vs. polymers & composites:

better temperature and solvent resistance; RECYCLABLE

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U.S. Magnesium Market

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Automotive Magnesium Progress Requires:• Continued alloy development• High-pressure die casting for thin-walled

parts• Twin-roll casting or other sheet forming

processes• Low-cost stable supply and pricing!

– China dominates production– Undercut prices 1995-2005, now 80% share– Subsidy → tax, prices doubled 2005-2009

• Recycling technology

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Metal Oxygen Separation Technologies, Inc.• Founded with Steve Derezinski 8/2008• Metal extraction breakthrough invented by

Uday Pal (MIT/Boston University)• Solid Oxide Membrane (SOM) protects an

inert anode, separates oxygen from metal, prevents ion cycling, oxygen selectivity

• Produces metal and pure oxygen gas• No carbon or chlorine in the process →

Zero Direct Emissions• “Clean metal production for clean energy”

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SOM Magnesium Overview

• SOM protects inert anode from harsh molten salt/oxide bath and separates Mg ↔ O

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• Apply DC potential at 1150-1300º C

• Argon stirs molten salt electrolyte and dilutes Mg vapor

e-

Mg+Ar

MgO

Mg2+O2-

O2

e-

SOM

Cathode:Mg2++2e- → Mg

Anode:O2- → ½O

2+2e-

Ar

Moltensalt bath

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Laboratory Magnesium Electrolysis Cells

Three-tube produces ~1 kg of magnesium at 50-80 ACurrent density 1-1.2 A/cm2 Compact, high productivity

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Industrial Electrolysis Cell

O2

out

MgOfeed

Ar in

+Gas/power/raw materialmanifold

{

Crucible

MgO feed tubes

SOM anodes

Cathodes/argonfeed tubes

Ar/Mg bubbles

Molten saltelectrolyte

Condenser

Liquid Mg

–

Ar+Mg

Tap

Ar out

Ar recyclingpump

SOM Process Costs

Source: Sujit Das, “Primary Magnesium Production Costs for Automotive Applications,”JOM 60(11):63-69 (November 2008).

Proprietary and Confidential

MOxST is the cleanest and most-efficient

(1) GAO Feng, “Assessing environmentl impact of magnesium production using Pidgeon process in China”, Trans of Nonferrous Metals, 2007

(2) US EPA reports, epa.gov

(1)

(2)

山口 周 : Magnesium is 鬼門

• Automotive market is not yet stable• Cost varies very strongly with price of

electrical energy• Competition from aluminum, polymers,

composites, new steel designs, e.g. instrument panel beam

• Chinese companies control 85% of the market!

• Flammability: laboratory and plant safety are crucial!

Magnesium Recycling

• Prompt and primary scrap: remelt it• Secondary (post-consumer) scrap:

contaminated with iron and many others– Poisons ductility, like copper in steel

• Usable for steel desulfurization, some aluminum alloying

• Not sustainable as magnesium increases in automobiles

Proprietary and Confidential

Magnesium Recycling Types (1-3 of 6)

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Proprietary and Confidential

Magnesium Recycling Types (4-6)

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Proprietary and Confidential

US Magnesium Recyclers

Source USGS.gov, 2004 report on metal recycling

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MOxST Magnesium Recycling• Electrorefining,

distillation and deoxidation in molten salt

• Pure Mg from any mixed alloy scrap, heavily oxidized

• Refining at 1-1.5V• Reduction at 4-6V• Combine with Mg

extraction

e-

Mg+Argases

MgO

Mg2+O2- O

2

e-

SOM

Cathode:Mg2++2e- → Mg

SOM Anode:O2- → ½O

2+2e-

Ar

Moltensalt bath

Scrap Anode:Mg→Mg2++2e-

Mg alloyscrap liquid

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Vehicle Recycling System

• Shredder gets 5¢/lb for ferrous, 25¢/lb for non-ferrous

• Non-ferrous: copper and aluminum alloy separation today

• Impure metals due to mixing of streams

• This process adds magnesium alloys

End-of-life automobiles

Dismantler(salvage yard)

Shredder

Non-ferroussorter

Flattened auto bodies

Non-ferrous metals

TiresGas tankBatteryAir bag

Ferrousmetals

ASR

Copper

Aluminum

OtherMagnesium

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Weight, Energy, GHG Impact

ΔWeight: save 290lbs/vehicle, 1.5-2 mpg

ΔEnergy: 100 TBTU~20% of Al industry

ΔGHG: 13.4 MMT CO2e

~20% of steel industry

USAMP Magnesium Vision 2020 Goals

MOxST MgRecyclingMOxST MgExtractionAl recyclingAl extractionSteel

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Energy and Environmental Benefits• Creates a market for low-grade and heavily

oxidized magnesium scrap– Less landfilling of hard-to-recycle material– Encourages dry machining, less fluid disposal

• A path for recycling automotive magnesium– Vehicle light-weighting and fuel efficiency– Die casting reduces part count

• Low-cost oxygen by-product

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MOxST Magnesium Impact

• Magnesium processing advantages enable significant vehicle light-weighting– New magnesium-intensive vehicle platforms– North American magnesium economy

• Very significant industrial energy savings and GHG emissions reduction– Ten-year industrial transformation away from

carbon- and energy-intensive aluminum• Recycling is a key enabling technology

MOxST and Silicon

• Solar-grade silicon production is complex and very costly

• Carbothermic reduction adds significant impurities

• Distillation and CVD are energy-inefficient

MOxST and Silicon

The Road Ahead for MOxST

• Rapid scale-up to hundreds of pounds, then tons

• Tests in automotive parts• Once proven, we will build equipment for

metal producers• We are currently in discussions with a

number of potential partners

• My former life as a consultant• Consulting for companies from sheet metal

products to batteries, Naval Research Lab• Used only open source software

– Lower cost– Long-term maintenance

• Developed new tools and release as OSS

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BlobStats Image AnalysisIdentify regions corresponding to featuresin materials microstructuresCalculate and present statistics

GIMP:flexible image

toolsSpreadsheetdata analysis

BlobStatsSmall single source file plug-in for GIMP(GNU Image Manipulation Program)

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BlobStats Image Analysis

• GIMP Plug-In for finding “blobs”

• Fits each to ellipse• Displays major and

minor axes• Saves size, center,

major/minor axes, orientation in .csv

• teaching.matdl.orgImage source: http://www.arcelormittal.com/automotive/sheets/catalogue.pl?language=EN&id_sheet=I5&fn=

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Ternary Phase Diagrams

Phase diagram as the convex hull of thefree energy

QHull fastconvex hull

library

Geomview 3-Dvisualization

engine

TernaryWriting the 0.1-0.2 releases took just two days

First implementation in C based on librariesfor free energy and phase diagram isotherm

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Ternary Phase Diagrams

• Convex hull with Newton-Raphson refining

• Calculates phase boundaries and spinodal curve

• 3-D visualization• Fastest phase

diagram isotherms anywhere!

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GUI for Educational Use

• Educational module under development using sliders to adjust parameters and watch effects in real time

• Exercise: fit parameters to a given phase diagram

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Elmer Finite Element Analysis

• Open Source FEA suite by CSC Finland• Coupled multi-physics segregated solver

– Fluid flow – DC current density– Heat & mass transfer – AC induction heating– Lagrangian & Eulerian front tracking– Fluid-structure interactions

• New graphical user interface (GUI) improves usability

• Scalable parallel matrix assembly & solvers• However, GUI is only in English

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High-Performance in Parallel

• MPI distributed processing on multi-CPUs or cluster

• METIS domain decomposition

• Robust solvers: MUMPS, BiCGStab, Hypre preconditioners

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Example: Carotid Artery

• Fluid-structure interactions: blood flow and artery wall

• Pressure increase increases blood velocity and expands diameter

• Larger diameter leads to faster blood flow

http://www.csc.fi/english/pages/elmer/examples/Coupled_problems/hemodyn

Engineering Open Source

• CAD: BRL-CAD, VARKON, OpenCASCADE & FreeCAD

• FEA frameworks: Elmer, Gmsh, Salomé• Mechanics: Code-Aster, Impact, CalculiX• Fluids: OpenFOAM, Code-Saturne• Libraries:

– LibMesh and deal.II: FEA fluids, heat & mass– PETSc: Parallel solvers & data objects

But Why Give Away Software?

• Idealism– I like sharing knowledge and building tools in

community– Sustainable code by “recycling”

• Practical considerations– Companies are more comfortable with source-

level access– Others can help fix bugs or add features

• I can't afford to sell it!

The Future of Software is Free

• Proprietary leads in many areas

• But open source meets many needs

• Over time: fewer need proprietary extras

• RedHat, IBM, Sun, Novell, Oracle

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Summary

• MOxST: SOM Electrolysis for Magnesium– Clean production of light weight metal– Scaling up to meet new automotive demand– Important place in industrial ecology of

magnesium– New world of automotive materials

• Open Source Materials Tools– GIMP/BlobStats microstructure analysis– Ternary/Gibbs thermodynamics