Electrochemistry of Reduction Processes: From Fuel Cells in Blast and Ferroalloy Furnaces to Direct Electrolysis of Ore

The existing two-stage cast iron–steel production scheme is shown not to meet modern requirements for rational environmental management, ecology, energy and resource conservation and not to correspond to the modern level of science. The currently recognized theories of metal reduction (direct and indirect reduction, absorption-autocatalytic, diffusion-kinetic, etc.) describe processes on an atomic-molecular level. Based on the electronic theory of reduction developed by us, the reduction process is presented as the sequential operation of two electrochemical cells, namely, a carbon fuel cell, which liberates electrons from oxygen anions, and a solid-electrolyte electrolysis cell, which returns these electrons to the cations to be reduced. The advantages of a hydrogen fuel cell are noted, and an assumption is made about the possibility of developing a device combining the advantages of traditional electrolysis of oxide melts using the electricity from an electrical network and solid-electrolyte electrolysis with a fuel cell.