Chuanlin Fan

Roasting-induced phase change and its influence on phosphorus removal through acid leaching for high-phosphorus iron ore

In the present study, roasting-induced phase change and its influence on phosphorus removal via leaching has been investigated for high-phosphorus iron ore. The findings indicate that phosphorus in the ore is associated with goethite and exists mainly in amorphous Fe3PO7 phase. The phosphorus remains in the amorphous phase after being roasted below 300°C. Grattarolaite (Fe3PO7) is found in samples roasted at 600–700°C, revealing that phosphorus phase is transformed from the amorphous form to crystalline grattarolaite during roasting. Leaching tests on synthesized pure grattarolaite reveal a low rate of phosphorus removal by sulfuric acid leaching. When the roasting temperature is higher than 800°C, grattarolaite is found to react with alumina to form aluminum phosphate, and the reactivity of grattarolaite with alumina increases with increasing roasting temperature. Consequently, the rate of phosphorus removal also increases with increasing roasting temperature due to the formation of acid-soluble aluminum phosphate.

Activated Charcoal Modified Graphite Felts Using for Positive Electrodes of Vanadium Redox Flow Battery

In the present paper, a composite electrode material was developed for vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFBs). Activated charcoal particles were evenly immobilized on the graphite felt (GF) via a sucrose pyrolysis process for the first time. The in site formed pyrolytic carbon is used as the binder, because it is essentially carbon material as well as GF and activated charcoal, which has a natural tendency to realize good adhesion and low contact resistance. The activated charcoal decorated GF electrode (abbreviated as the composite electrode) possesses larger surface area (13.8 m(2) g(-1)), more than two times as GF (6.3 m(2) g(-1)). The oxygen content of composite electrode is also higher (7.0%) than that of GF (4.8%). The composite electrode was demonstrated to lower polarization and increase the reversibility toward the VO2+/VO(2)(+)redox couple according to the cyclic voltammetry (CV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) measurements. The charge-discharge cycling test was conducted with a single VRFB cell. The results indicate that the cell with composite electrode presents higher charge-discharge capacity, larger electrolyte utilization efficiency (EU), and higher energy conversion efficiency (79.1%) compared with that using GF electrode. The increasing electrochemical performances of composite electrodes are mainly ascribed to the high electrochemical activity of activated charcoal particles and increasing superficial area.

Preparation and Electrochemical Properties of High Purity Mixed-Acid Electrolytes for High Energy Density Vanadium Redox Flow Battery

All-vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) is a large-scale electrochemical energy storage technology with numerous potential applications because of its inherent safety and long service life. In previous years, a novel mixed-acid electrolyte system, vanadium electrolytes with mixture of sulfuric acid and hydrochloric acid, has been developed by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) to increase vanadium solubility, which can effectively raise the electrolyte energy density from 25 Wh/L to 40 Wh/L. To further improve mixed-acid VRFBs, in present work, high purity mixed-acid electrolytes were prepared using a novel direct dissolution - electrochemical reduction process from high purity vanadium oxytrichloride (VOCl3). And the purity and electrochemical properties were investigated, comparing with common mixed-acid electrolytes and regular sulfate electrolytes prepared from metallurgical grade vanadium pentoxide. It was found that the novel process demonstrated a great potential for the low cost and high efficiency production of high purity electrolytes with excellent electrochemical properties for mixed-acid VRFBs. Comparing the traditional high purity electrolytes preparation process, the present novel method will dramatically cut the cost by more than 90 percent, which will considerably facilitate the commercial application of high performance and high density VRFBs.