title: Smelting Magnesium Metal using a Microwave Pidgeon Method.
abstract: Magnesium (Mg) is a lightweight metal with applications in transportation and sustainable battery technologies, but its current production through ore reduction using the conventional Pidgeon process emits large amounts of CO2and particulate matter (PM2.5). In this work, a novel Pidgeon process driven by microwaves has been developed to produce Mg metal with less energy consumption and no direct CO2emission. An antenna structure consisting of dolomite as the Mg source and a ferrosilicon antenna as the reducing material was used to confine microwave energy emitted from a magnetron installed in a microwave oven to produce a practical amount of pure Mg metal. This microwave Pidgeon process with an antenna configuration made it possible to produce Mg with an energy consumption of 58.6 GJ/t, corresponding to a 68.6% reduction when compared to the conventional method.
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Chemistry, Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 2-12-1Ookyama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, 152-8550 Japan.
authors.forename: Yuji
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wada
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Chemistry, Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 2-12-1Ookyama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, 152-8550 Japan.
authors.forename: Satoshi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Fujii
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Chemistry, Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 2-12-1Ookyama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, 152-8550 Japan.
authors.forename: Eiichi
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Suzuki
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Chemistry, Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 2-12-1Ookyama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, 152-8550 Japan.
authors.forename: Masato M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Maitani
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Chemistry, Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 2-12-1Ookyama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, 152-8550 Japan.
authors.forename: Shuntaro
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tsubaki
authors.affiliation: Oricon Energy Inc., 6-8-10 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo, 106-0032 Japan.
authors.forename: Satoshi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chonan
authors.affiliation: Oricon Energy Inc., 6-8-10 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo, 106-0032 Japan.
authors.forename: Miho
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fukui
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Chemistry, Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 2-12-1Ookyama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, 152-8550 Japan.
authors.forename: Naomi
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Inazu