| Abstract Scope |
Iron and steel-making industries account for 7% of total industry emissions. Electrolytic ironmaking processes have the potential to decarbonize ironmaking deeply. Despite its unique advantages, acidic electrowinning remains less studied due to the severe hydrogen evolution side reaction. In this work, a new family of aqueous electrolytes, anion-rich electrolytes, that have the potential to suppress hydrogen evolution reaction and promote Fe deposition significantly, will be introduced. Based on this electrolyte, a novel ironmaking process in acidic electrolytes, Acidic electro-Winning in Anion-Rich Electrolytes (AWARE), that successfully addresses the low-efficiency problem of acidic electrolysis is developed. Both batch- and continuous-mode ironmaking were studied using two real Fe ores in various current densities. High-efficiency production (up to 99.8%) of high-purity iron (>99%) from real Fe ores (impurity up to 10.2 wt%) with high current densities (up to 1000 mA/cm2) at low temperatures (25-80°C) is demonstrated. |