Electrometallurgy

Electrometallurgy is a method of extracting metals from electrical energy. According to the different effects of using electric energy, electrometallurgy can be divided into electrothermal metallurgy and electrochemical metallurgy.

1. Electrothermal metallurgy is a method of smelting by converting electric energy into heat energy.

In the process of electrothermal metallurgy, according to the essence of its physical and chemical changes, there is little difference between the two processes, the main difference is that the source of heat energy is different during smelting.

2. Electrochemical metallurgy (electrolysis and electrowinning) is the use of electrochemical reactions, so that metals from the solution or melt containing metal salts.

The former is called solution electrolysis, such as the electrolytic refining of actinides and the electrowinning of zinc, which can be included in the category of hydrometallurgy; the latter is called molten salt electrolysis, which not only utilizes the chemical effect of electric energy, but also converts electrical energy into heat energy, thereby heating metal salts into melts, so it can also be classified into pyrometallurgy. The production process of extracting metal from ore or concentrate.

There are usually both pyrometallurgical and hydrometallurgical processes. Even if the pyrometallurgical process is mainly pyrometallurgical, for example, the pyrometallurgical process of sulphide pot concentrate, there must be a hydrometallurgical refining process at last; in the hydrometallurgical zinc smelting, the zinc sulfide concentrate also needs to be pretreated by high temperature oxidation roasting.