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By C. Geenen

At its Olen site, Union Minière Copper operates a new full-size deposit tank house. A first 200,000 t/y module was commissioned in October 1996, and an additional 130,000 t/y unit started in April 1998. The main objectives of the new tank house project were to produce grade A cathodes starting from anodes with a wide range of compositions and at a minimal operating cost. The tank house uses Isa Process technology. Based on the process parameters agreed upon with MIM, UM Copper developed the basic design and UM Engineering was the in-house contractor for the engineering. The new tank house is equipped with advanced technology polymer concrete cells, automated two-bale cranes and high-capacity machines. The first 200,000 t/y module treats anodes with a more conventional composition at 330 A/m2; the second 130,000 t/y module treats anodes with a high slimes fall (12- 13 kg/t) at current densities up to 285 A/m2. After some teething problems, the new tank house is meeting all set targets. This paper illustrates and comments on the design characteristics and operational results.

Jan 1, 1999

By Kenji Monden

"The creep properties of tin-based lead-free solders Sn3.0AgO.5Cu and SnO.7CuO.1Ni and lead solders 10Sn90Pb and 50Sn50Pb were investigated at temperatures between 298 K and 398 K. The creep-rupture time decreases with increasing initial stress and temperature. The analysis of the solder creep curves uses the Omega method. The creep rate E is expressed by following formula: 1n ? = 1n ?0 + O?, where ?0 and O are experimentally determined. The parameter Eo increases with increasing initial stress and temperature. The activation energy for ?0 is 108 kJ/mol for Sn3.0Ag0.5Cu and 85 kJ/mol for SnO.7CuO.INi. These energies suggest that the lattice diffusion of tin is dominant. The energy of 1OSn90Pb is 37 kJ/mol and that of 50Sn50Pb is 67 kJ/mol. The creep-rupture time is calculated using the parameters, ?0 and O. The calculated creep-rupture time is in good agreement with the measured creep-rupture time.IntroductionLead-free solders are replacing traditional tin-lead solders as part of a major trend toward protecting the earth's environment. However, tin-lead solders are currently needed for a high temperature range. Since creep is the main deformation mechanism in solder joints, understanding a constitutive model for creep and examining creep data for solders are important for reliability analysis of solder joints. A steady-state creep equation is generally used for solders [1,2], and it supposes that the secondary-, or minimum-, creep rate occupies the entire creep life. However, secondary creep accounts for only about 15 % to 40 % of the entire creep life for solders. Thus, the equation may not represent the entire creep life."

Jan 1, 2012

By C. A. Morais

The present work describes the development of an efficient and relatively simple process to obtain high grade CeO2 from a mixed rare earth chloride solution. The process involves cerium oxidation and precipitation by addition of a KMnO4-NaCO3 solution. The experiments were carried out at room temperature (25 1° C). The results indicated that the major parameters affecting cerium recovery are the molar ratio of KMnO4/Ce, the initial acidity of the chloride feed solution and final pH of Ce(OH)4 precipitation. In strong acid solutions (pH < 1), the oxidation of Cl to Clo took place in addition to the oxidation of Ce(III) to Ce(IV), so increasing the permanganate consumption. Conversely, low acidity (pH >3) led to coprecipitation of the other rare earth elements. Under the selected conditions, cerium was selectively precipitated as ceric hydroxide, together with some manganese dioxide. Further purification was carried out by the dissolution of Ce(OH)4 in HCl, followed by precipitation as cerium carbonate. The filtrate was neutralised with a Na2CO3 solution in order to recover the associated rare earth elements for further separation. The final product, assaying 99.7 % CeO2, was obtained with a recovery of nearly 100%.

Jan 1, 2003

By Pekka Hanniala

The falling real price level of copper metal and changes in the treatment and refining charges has been characteristic to the copper industry during the last few decades. Outokumpu&apos;s continuous development of the Flash Smelting Technology and increased productivity of the smelters based on these improvements may be one of the basic reasons that have influenced to these trends. From the early beginning of the Flash Smelting Technology, it has been characterized by low operation costs and low emissions, and the vision has been to develop the technology towards Direct Blister Flash Smelting. In Direct Blister Flash Smelting, both smelting and converting are carried out in one furnace making it possible to reduce the number of unit operation steps and thus lower both operation and investment costs. The merger of large copper production companies taken place during the last few years is a sign of a new age in copper production business. Now, the aim is to increase the productivity of copper production not just by utilizing the economy of scale but also by increasing integration and optimization of the whole production chain from mine to refinery. This also means increasing win- win based cooperation between companies. A Production Network concept based on the Flash Converting process enables existing smelters to decrease the operating costs and expand the smelting capacity with minimum investment and at the same time to decrease the emissions of the smelters. The new structure in ownership and partnership between copper production companies makes it easier to adopt the Production Network concept to both new and existing plants, where there exists a lot of built-in capacity. The paper presents Outokumpu&apos;s prediction on how the new options for the smelters will contribute to further changes in the structure of copper production. These visions are illustrated by giving examples on how the combination of matte production, Flash Converting, and Direct-to-Blister Flash Smelting could be adapted in existing and new smelters.

Jan 1, 2002

By John Norton

"This presentation will cover the physical properties of waste heat recovery. It is a two part presentation. The first deals with actually recovering the heat with new state of the art heat exchangers and applying that heat to the furnace combustion and the second part will cover what other processes you can enhance with this ""free"" heat. It will also talk about converting it to steam, hot air or electricity to be used or sold back to the utility company. The economics of various schemes will be reviewed. A brief discussion on State and Federal grants and subsidies will be presented.IntroductionThere are large quantities of wasted heat in the usual aluminum melting process. And, there are several techniques for reducing and/or using some of that wasted heat as you have seen. Any technique that can make use of wasted heat is a form of recovery. This can range from simply preheating aluminum billets prior to melting, to more complicated processes like air-to-air heat exchangers using the boiling and condensing characteristics of special fluids in “heat pipes.” The objective of this type energy recovery process is to move the wasted heat from the hot and dirty exhaust gas stream into some useful process.Waste Heat Recovery in the Aluminum Melting Furnace.There are considerations, of course:1) What might the value be of the recovered energy?2) Can the recovered energy be used within the process? Within the plant? Or by theneighbors?3) What is the capital cost?4) Is the recovery process complicated?5) Will it take additional staff?6) Will it cause additional downtime on the melting line?7) Will the operations staff need to be licensed?Ideally, the process will be simple and inexpensive, the recovered energy will be very valuable, and the whole effort will cause little distraction to the aluminum melting process itself. These would be ideal."

Jan 1, 2011

By Batric Pesic

Gold dissolution with bromine was studied by using the rotating disc technique. Geobram TM 3400 was used as a source of bromine. The parameters studied were: rotating speed, Geobrom 3400 concentration, pH, temperature, sulfuric and hydrochloric acid concentration, and the concentration of various cations (copper, iron, zinc, aluminum, manganese, potassium and sodium) and anions (chloride, bromide, sulfate, nitrate, and iodide) According to the Levich plot and activation energy, gold dissolution was controlled by a chemical reaction rate. Copper, iron, and manganese in their highest oxidation states, aluminum, zinc, sodium and potassium did not have any effect on gold dissolution rate. The presence of manganous ion dramatically decreased the gold dissolution rate. Kinetic performance of bromine, in the form of Geobram TM 3400, was compared with performance of cyanide and thiourea.

Jan 1, 1990

By Qionghua Zhou, Wei Liu

"Nanocrystalline silver bulk material with average grain size of 20.3 nm was prepared by warmvacuum- compaction method. The as-prepared nanocrystalline silver was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), differential scanning calarmeutry analysis (DSC), thermogravimetric analysis (TG), and 6157 type Electrometer test, respectivily. The experimental results show that the average grain size and microstrain of the nanocrystalline silver are 20.3 nm and 0.088%. The melting point and melting enthalpy are 1228.7 Kand 82.34 Jig, which are lower than that of coarse-grained silver by 6 Kand 22.6 Jig, respectively. The electrical resistivity of nanocrystlline silver increases with higher temperature when the range of temperature is between 233K and 293K. The electrical resistivity at 293 K is 1.475xlO -7 Q·m, which is higher than that of coarsegrained silver by a factor of 9.IntroductionN anocrystaline ( nc) materials or nano structured ( ns) materials are three-dimensional (3 D) bulk materials with average grain size typically smaller than 100 nm. Ne materials have been of great interest for their unique properties, such as superior tensile strength [1-2], high microhardness [3- 4], superplasticity [5-6], magnetically quasi-isotropic [7-8] , and so on, making them one of the most promising nano-scale materials with wide applications. Ne materials with average grain size of 5-10 nm were firstly fabricated by Gleiter et al. [9] in 1980s, using inert gas condensation (IGC) method. Unfortunately, the large surface to volume ratio creates a high surface energy component in the total free energy of the system and results in a metastable state in the materials. Therefore, due to the signfica nt disordered grain boundary regions, nanomaterials are thermally unstable and are subjected to a strong driving force for grain growth. The grain growth even occurred at room temperature [10].The conflict or deviation of measured date, e.g. strength, microhardness, thermal stability, partly due to the grain boundary ratio or the distribution of grain size, and partly derived from imperfections such as voids and microcracks while earlier processing techniques are known to result in incomplete dens:fication [11-12]. Therefore, the higher quality samples produced in subsequently years still show such a general trend."

Jan 1, 2011

By Elsa Olivetti, Randolph Kirchain, Gabrielle Gaustad

"As scrap usage increases, it is often necessary to “dilute” the melt with primary aluminum to ensure the finished product meets compositional specifications. Secondary raw materials, particularly postconsumer scraps, often include high levels of unwanted or “tramp” elements, such as iron and silicon in the case of aluminum. Recent literature on this issue cites several causes including inherent contamination during processing as well as ineffective segmentation at end-of-life. To address this accumulation problem, “upgrading” solutions have been developed including: dismantling of end-of-life products, spectrographic or magnetic sorting of shredded scrap, and “filtration” technologies that remove tramp elements in the melt. Although it is clear that upgrading strategies enable increased usage of scrap, it is not clear that they would be economic or efficient. This work presents a set of analytical methods, based on chance constrained optimization, to quantify the potential environmental and economic value of several scrap upgrading technologies.IntroductionAluminum recycling has a number of key environmental and economic benefits. Compared to other materials, aluminum production has one of the largest energy differences between primary and secondary production: 175 MJ/kg for primary compared to 10-20 MJ/kg for secondary[1]. With energy and cost savings in mind, many producers now have targets of increasing their usage of secondary materials[2, 3]. However, the accumulation of impurities in these recycled material streams provides a significant compositional barrier to these goals[4].A growing number of studies and literature would suggest that accumulation of unwanted elements is a growing problem, in all recycled material streams. In the case of aluminum, the list of problematic impurities is quite large, including but not limited to: Si[5, 6], Mg, Ni, Zn, Pb, Cr[7], Fe[5-7], Cu[6, 7], V, and Mn[6]. Metals recycling is a metallurgical process and is therefore governed by the laws of thermodynamics. The removal of unwanted elements in the scrap stream is dictated by the energy considerations of the melt process. Compared to many metals, aluminum has a high degree of difficulty in the removal of tramp elements, due to thermodynamic barriers. Therefore, with no simple thermodynamic solution, producers must identify strategies through-out the production process to mitigate this elemental accumulation."

Jan 1, 2008

By Heinz Boeni, Daniel Ott, Uca Silva

"Latin America is facing a rapid increase in internet use. Penetration with electronic equipment is in some countries approaching the level of industrialized countries. There is an evident need to resolve the management of “end-of-life” computers and other electronic equipment. Several studies in Latin America assessed the increasing e-waste quantities and confirmed the importance of a sustainable e-waste management. This paper gives an overview on the status on e-waste management in Latin America, explains the challenges for establishing an e-waste management system in a developing country setting and highlights the social and economic potential and the possibilities of a regional approach.IntroductionGlobal ICT-Trade and generation of e-waste from ICTThe global production of electronic devices and particularly of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) faces the biggest industrial expansion of the history: OECD figures show that global trade of ICT technologies has reached 7.7% of the gross world product by 2004, the major proportion accruing from China [1]. In 2006 an estimated 230 million computers and 1 billion cell phones have been sold worldwide which corresponds to a volume of 5’848’000 t [2]. As a consequence, Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE), or e-waste, is by far the fastest growing waste component. It reaches more than 5% referred to Municipal Solid Waste and e-waste generation in developing countries according to UNEP is expected to triple by 2010 [2].According to the OECD e-waste is “any appliance using an electric power supply that has reached its end-of-life” [3]. The European WEEE directive [4] distinguishes 10 categories of ewaste: Big household appliances, Small Household Appliances, IT and Telecommunications Equipment, Consumer Equipment, Lighting Equipment, Electrical and Electronic Tools, Toys, Leisure and Sports Equipment, Medical devices, Monitoring and Control Instruments, and Automatic dispensers. In this paper e-waste and WEEE are used as synonyms. Focus will be laid on e-waste from IT equipment (IT-waste), corresponding to category 3 of the European WEEEDirective."

Jan 1, 2008

By Jin Liu

In the early 1990?s, Inco successfully installed two new flash furnaces as part of their SO2abatement project to reduce SO2 emissions from the Copper Cliff Smelter by 60%. The flash furnace off-gas is cooled and cleaned through two new Monsanto Dynawave gas cleaning systems that replaced the traditional venturi scrubbing system. It was discovered that the flash furnace production capacity is often limited by the capacity of the gas cleaning system. The key task is to eliminate pressure drop from the system. The froth column is responsible for by far the largest pressure drop in the gas cleaning system. Initially, the column was fitted with 22 plates. In 1994, both #1 and #2 froth columns were modified by reducing the number of plates in each column from 22 to 18 and increasing the interplate spacing on lower plates. With increasing demand for more throughput in the flash furnaces, further modifications on the froth columns were made in 2005. This paper describes these modifications and results together with some fundamental analysis of the froth column characteristics.

Jan 1, 2006

By C. A. Landolt

Inco pioneered the use of tonnage oxygen in non ferrous metallurgy when it commissioned the first industrial oxygen f1ash smelting process for the treatment of copper concentrates in the ear 1y fifties. This techno logica1 innovation was followed by other applications of technical oxygen. Inco is currently implementjng a Sulfur Dioxide Abatement Program designed to reduce SO2 emissions from the smelter by 60% in 1994. The new flowsheet includes new equipment for the oxygen flash smelting of Cu-Ni concentrates and for flash conversion of chalcocite. Oxygen smelting and converting technology will lead to a substantial decrease in use of fossil fuels and to generation of high strength S02 off gases suitable for efficient fixation in a new acid plant.

Jan 1, 1992

By Mari Naess, Jan Erik Olsen, Gabriella Tranell

"Fume, also known as dust, is produced during metal refining. Exposure to fume is damaging to the health of plant operators. A mathematical model has been developed to study the different factors governing the fuming mechanism. It is shown that natural convection is the main driving force of the phenomenon, and that the fuming rate is highly sensitive to the area of the exposed metal surface. A new feature introduced in the modeling concept is the ability to include a gas flux of unconsumed process gas flowing up through the metal surface. This reduces the fuming rate, and should normally not be neglected.IntroductionFormation of fume from the ladle in which metal is refined into its final specifications is an environmental issue of importance for the working environment in the production plant. In layman-term fume is often known as dust. It is formed when metal reacts with oxygen. As an example of a fuming process, we will focus on ladle refining of silicon. Note that many of the principles and conclusions will apply to other metal refining processes. For silicon production, silica fume (S1O2) is produced when silicon metal (Si) reacts with oxygen (O2).Silicon is produced in a submerged arc furnace. The metal is tapped from the furnace into a ladle for refining. The refining is conducted by injecting a mixture of air and pure oxygen at the bottom of the ladle. The oxygen reacts with the metal and the impurities, and the amount of impurities is reduced according to product specification. At the ladle surface, metal also reacts with oxygen present in the air surrounding the ladle. This reaction produces silica fume as illustrated in Figure 1."

Jan 1, 2012

By A. G. Guézennec

Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) steelmaking co-produces amounts of dust (15 to 25 kg per ton of steel), which require to be collected and stored in specific landfills. The collection, handling, and possible beneficiation of EAF dust depend on its composition and morphology. We first studied theoretically the chemical evolution of dust particles along the fume extraction system, from the furnace down to the filters, using thermodynamic calculations of the Fe-Zn-O system. We show how it would be possible to favor zincite formation in dust and therefore increase further zinc recovery. Then, we developed a new morphological model, based on population balances, for predicting the granulometric evolution of dust particles as a result of agglomeration and sintering in the fume extraction ducts. The contribution of the various mechanisms (Brownian, turbulent, and sedimentary agglomeration; thermophoretic deposition; coalescence and sintering) is assessed. The influence of the exhausting conditions on dust granulometry is detailed. For the extraction system studied, intense agglomeration of the sub-micronic particles and complete coalescence take place inside the furnace; micronic particles then undergo little evolution from the elbow to the water-jacket, whereas big agglomerates are formed downstream. These results are in good agreement with dust particle observations.

Jan 1, 2006

By T. S. Montgomery

The performance of carbon-magnesia brick in electric arc furnaces (EAF) is interpreted in light of their observed optical microstructures. Features at the bricks&apos; hot faces were protruding periclase grains, metal globules, graphite-metal contacts and linear void patterns. These features were com-pared to similar features previously seen from microstructures of basic oxygen furnace (BOF) refractories. Modes of formation were sought; an attempt was made to interpret their influence related to wear mechanisms.

Jan 1, 1982

By Moo Eob Choi

The reduction of iron oxide particles by hydrogen is one of the most widely investigated gas-solid reactions. The search for new methods for producing iron by the direct reduction of iron oxide has resulted in a large number of exhaustive studies of the various aspects of this reaction. However, previous studies have largely been done with either pellets or lump ores. Little has been published on the hydrogen reduction of very fine concentrate particles smaller than 37 µm (-400 mesh). The kinetics of hydrogen reduction of fine iron oxide concentrates were investigated in the temperature range of 900 - 1300°C.

Jan 1, 2006

By M. Olper

Today, copper production from direct leaching of oxidized copper ores followed by solvent extraction-electrowinning (SX-EW) accounts for about 15% of the total primary world output. SX-EW is a well-accepted process with an operating cost in the range 16-20 cents/lb. copper for small and medium size plants, depending on the plant size and local conditions. However, this technology presents some drawbacks that affect the operating cost and cause environmental concerns. ENGITEC and Paques Bio Systems have developed a new process that avoids the solvent extraction step and operates the copper electrowinning step at a lower cell voltage because of the depassivation of the anodic reaction. The consequence of this new concept is that the direct operating cost is in the range 10-12 cents/lb. copper. This new process is composed of the following steps: ? Selective precipitation of copper from leach solutions by biogenic H2S, yielding CuS and regenerating acid ? Leaching of the CuS with a ferric fluoborate solution to dissolve copper and produce elemental sulphur that is recycled back to the H2S biogeneration step ? Electrowinning of copper fluoborate solution in a diaphragm cell with the ECUPREX® Process, producing copper cathodes and regenerating the ferric fluoborate solution to be recycled back to the leaching step ? Biogeneration of H2S from the elemental: sulphur generated during the leaching step, with the nutrient source for the anaerobic bacteria selected form a wide range of organic substances and/or some industrial by-products containing carbon and hydrogen This paper describes all process steps with particular reference to the biological H2S generation technology. Also discussed&apos; is the capability of the ECUPREX® Process to treat copper sulphide concentrates and copper matte.

Jan 1, 1999

By Rivera Jose Antonio Ore

Top Submerged Lance (TSL) smelting technology is currently used in a wide range of applications in the non ferrous and waste product treatment industries. The use of TSL technology for tin concentrates smelting has been successfully applied at the Minsur Tin Smelter and Refinery at Pisco, Perú. The process is based on the air-cooled top entry submerged Sirosmelt lance, developed by Dr. John Floyd at the CSIRO division of Mineral and Process Engineering in the 1970?s. Advantages of the process include flexibility to operate the lance, main burner of the Sirosmelt furnace, with different levels of combustion stoichiometry which allows us to get from highly reducing to highly oxydising atmospheres in the smelting reactor according to the type of feed we are processing, ability to utilize cheap energy sources such as natural gas, low capital cost and an environmentally friendly operation. This presentation summarises the application of the Submerged Sirosmelt technology for smelting tin concentrates and a variety of tin containing materials like iron dross, copper dross, tin residues, low tin/antimony slags by applying recent metallurgical developments at the Minsur smelter. The impact of new feed conditions and level of impurities on reactor performance with features of process and operation control are described. As a result of these recent advances in tin smelting using TSL technology, the Minsur Tin Smelter and Refinery improved its overall tin recovery, substantially reduced tin inventories and became the second largest tin smelter in the world, currently producing more than 40,000 metric tones of refined tin per year.

Jan 1, 2006

By Matti Hämäläinen

Outokumpu has developed a new chloride leaching process, HydroCopper?, for copper concentrates. The process utilizes the cupric ion as oxidant, which is able to dissolve chalcopyrite. After solution purification monovalent copper is precipitated as cuprous oxide, Cu2O, using sodium hydroxide. Copper product is produced from Cu2O by reduction, melting and casting. An essential part of the new process is chlor-alkali electrolysis, which regenerates the reagents used. All impurity metals are removed before Cu2O precipitation, because otherwise they would report to the copper product, impairing its quality. A multistage solution purification scheme has been developed consisting of firstly, chemical precipitation of impurity metals by pH increase, secondly, cementation of silver and thirdly, removal of trace multivalent ions using ion exchange. This paper describes the characteristics of solution purification in the HydroCopper? process based on the laboratory tests and pilot runs made by Outokumpu Research Oy.

Jan 1, 2003

"Hematite pellets were electro-deoxidized to iron in molten sodium hydroxide to produce iron containing about 10-wt % oxygen. The anodic reaction was the evolution of oxygen on an inert nickel anode. Before the electrochemical reaction, there is a reaction between sodium hydroxide and ferric oxide to form sodium ferrite and, in order to compensate for the reduction in sodium oxide content, 1 wt % sodium oxide is added to the melt. In a laboratory cell, the cell voltage was 1.7 V with a current density of 5000 A m-2, a current efficiency of 90% and an energy consumption of 2.8 kWh kg-1.Introduction The iron and steel industry contributes about 2.3 bn tonnes/annum of the carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, which is about 10% of the total, and some believe that, in order to prevent a catastrophic rise in the earth’s temperature, carbon dioxide emissions must be reduced by 50% come 2050. However, by 2050, it is likely that the iron and steel industry would have grown significantly so that the production may have risen to 2 or 3 bn tonnes/year so in order to meet the 50 % reduction on today’s figure, the carbon dioxide may have to be reduced to 25% or less, which is a very demanding requirement. There are probably three ways of reducing the carbon dioxide output:1. By capture and sequestration, but this may be technically very demanding.2. Reduction using hydrogen in place of carbon."

Jan 1, 2009

By K. S. Raja, M. Misra, S. K. Mohapatra

"Ordered arrays of TiO2 nanotubular photocatalysts were prepared by a simple anodization process. Band gap states of the TiO2 were altered by controlling the anodization electrolyte composition and thermal annealing conditions that resulted in enhanced photo activity. These nanotubes were used for reducing CO2 to methanol either by photochemical or photo electrochemical routes. Pd nano-particle loaded TiO2 nanotubes were employed for photochemical reduction of CO2 to methanol that showed a conversion rate of 12 x 10-3 mol m- 2h-1. Carbon modified TiO2-xCx type nanotubes were used as photo anode and Ti as cathode for photo electrochemical reduction of CO2. The potential of Ti cathode was maintained at -0.5 V SCE. The formation rate of methanol was determined as 13 x 10-3 mol.m-2h-1.1. IntroductionGlobal warming due to emission of carbon dioxide is a serious environmental concern. The atmospheric concentration of CO2 is about 384 ppm by volume and about 3 x 1012 tonnes by weight. Burning of fossil fuels and deforestation are the leading causes for increase in the anthropogenic CO2. More than 32 x 109 tonnes of CO2 are released per year (based on 2006 data) worldwide from the fossil fuel. Pumping CO2 from the fossil fuel power plants into deep ocean basin is one of the most discussed disposal options. The other potential option is converting this green house gas into valuable fuels.Carbon dioxide feed stock can be converted into fuels of solid, liquid or gas phase by chemical, electrolytic, photocatalytic and photo-electrocatalytic methods. Reduction of CO2 to fuel form of any phase requires energy. The reduction process should be energy efficient so that we do not spend more energy and emit more (indirect) CO2 in the process of converting CO2. From this point of view, conversion processes occurring at room temperature look attractive.Electrolytic conversion of CO2 into various forms such as methane1, ethane2, ethylene3, methanol4,5, ethanol6, n-propanol, formic acid7, and formaldehyde has been widely reported. The standard equilibrium potential (at pH: 0) for reduction of CO2 to methanol is 0.14 VSHE and to methane is 0.2 VSHE which is thermodynamically more favorable than hydrogen reduction. However, the gas phase reduction is kinetically complex requiring effective electrocatalyst. The major issues with electrolytic conversion of CO2 to useful products are:"

Jan 1, 2010