A Study on Clean Magnesium Production with Pidgeon's Process

摘要

The technological development of the Pidgeon's Process has pushed the cost of magnesium down to a historical low and the magnesium produced by the Pidgeon's Process has dominated the world market. Though many factories have continued to increase their focus on controlling them, low thermal efficiency and loss of emissions are still two major issues impacting the future development of the Pidgeon's Process. This paper compares the pollution produced by the Pidgeon's Process with that of the Electrolysis Method, discusses several effective measures for saving energy and reducing pollution that are being applied to the Pidgeon's Process and presents an array of effective methodology, currently being utilized in the field. It has been discovered that the thermal efficiency of Pidgeon's Process can be increased about 2/3 if the following measures are adopted: (1) Application of a regenerator to reduce the temperature of the exhaust gas emitted from reduction furnaces; (2) Utilization of the high temperature exhaust gas for the generation of electric power; (3) Utilization of the high temperature exhaust gas in refinery furnaces; (4) Application of a well-matched, cascading system in the utilization of energy and materials.rnIn the field, many innovative approaches have been developed by Winca Materials Tech. Co., LTD, including: (1) Conventional coal fuel has been replaced by Coal-Water Slurry, which has a much higher efficiency both in combustion and in thermal properties, to totally eliminate the presence of heavy smoke; (2) A high thermal efficiency furnace has been designed and applied to increase magnesium production and reduce energy consumption; (3) HTAC (High Temperature Air Combustion) technology has been introduced; (4) An energy-saving system, with cascading utilization of energy, has been applied throughout the process of magnesium production; (5) Magnesia slag has been used to produce bricks and functional insulating materials, bringing solid pollution down to zero.