We asked: What mature industrial process consumes a lot of electricity? Why is it not reversible?
The electrochemical process of “Electrowinning” is used to turn ionic metal into solid, high purity metal. One Kg of dissolved metal turned solid consumes several kWh of electricity.
We just made the process reversible.
BEFORE - 200 YEARS OLD TECHNOLOGIE
Solvent extraction (SX) and Electrowinning (EW)
Electrowinning is currently not reversible :
▹ 5 millions tons/year
of metals are extracted by SX/EW
▹ 34 plants in the world have
a power rating beyond 300 MW
