The Gas and Plasma Dynamics Laboratory at Missouri S&T in the Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, led by Associate Professor of Aerospace Engineering, Daoru (Frank) Han.
LISAP-MSE: Producing Aluminum In-Situ on the Moon through Molten Salt Electrolysis
Production of Aluminum Metal for In-Situ on the moon using the Lunar In-Situ Aluminum Production through Molten Salt Electrolysis (LISAP-MSE) method developed at Missouri S&T. The research aims to demonstrate the use of acid leaching, thermal decomposition, and electrolysis to reduce lunar anorthite into aluminum metal. The process is broken into Phase I & Phase II. Phase I consists of acid leaching of the lunar anorthite and thermal decomposition of the compounds produced to form alumina. Phase II is where the molten salt electrolysis occurs to produce the aluminum metal.
Flow Chart of the LISAP-MSE Process. Once the process begins, the only additive that needed is HCI as there is losses during heating.
Layout of the Phase I process of acid leaching and thermal decomposition.
Electrolytic Cell Used for Phase II, Molten Salt Electrolysis.
A: Graphite crucible that served as secondary containment as well as susceptor/heater in an induction field.
B: Alumina crucible to contain the calcium chloride.
C: Alumina crucible designed to contain the alumina rich calcium chloride along with any products.
D: Region where alumina powder is contained.
E: Calcium Chloride salt used for the electrolysis.
F: Graphite Anode.
G: Alumina tube to sheath the cathode from the calcium chloride with a low concentration of dissolved alumina and ensure that the cathode is exposed only to the alumina rich region of the calcium chloride.
H: Platinum Cathode.
Kinetic modeling of gases and plasmas
Kinetic modeling of gases and plasmas. PIFE-PIC simulation of charging of a dielectric sphere immersed in a stationary plasma. The floating potential and OML sheath profile are successfully resolved. Reference: Daoru Han, Xiaoming He, and Joseph Wang. PIFE-PIC: A 3-D Parallel Immersed Finite Element Particle-in-Cell Framework for Plasma Simulations. 2018 AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting (SciTech Forum), Kissimmee, FL, January 8 – 12, 2018, AIAA 2018-2196. [link]
Experimental – Plasma interactions with airless space bodies (Moon, asteroids)
5/12/2020: Demonstration of the concept of using solar wind plasma as direct ISRU electricity power source – an LED (left) lit up by the voltage difference between ion-dominant regions and electron-dominant regions in the plasma chamber (right). Photo Courtesy of Terence McGarvey, Blake Folta, and Joshua Burch.
November 2019 – : The 12-cm RF plasma source running in the vacuum chamber (1.8-m diameter, 3-m long) at Missouri S&T. Reference: Blake A. Folta, Terence W. McGarvey IV, Joseph C. Faudel, Kyle R. McMillen, and Daoru Han. Development and Characterization of an Ion Source to Simulate Solar Wind Plasma in a Vacuum Chamber. AIAA SciTech 2020 Forum, Orlando, FL, January 6 – 10, 2020, AIAA 2020-0048. [link]
Collaborators
- Dr. Zhen Hu at the University of Michigan – Dearborn
- Dr. Jie Huang at the Missouri University of Science and Technology
- Dr. Joshua L. Rovey at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- Dr. Xiaoming He at the Missouri University of Science and Technology
- Dr. Nikolaos A. Gatsonis at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute
- Dr. Joseph J. Wang at the University of Southern California