Metalysis commercialises new metal extracting process
Metalysis commercialises new metal extracting process
Keywords: Metal extraction, Environment
Metalysis, a Cambridge University spin-out company is commercialising a new metal extraction process which could dramatically decrease the cost and environmental impact of producing metals normally difficult and expensive to extract. Metals already produced in a one step process include chromium,molybdenum, tungsten, cobalt and silicon.
Metalysis, based at TWI's Granta Park in Cambridge, has been established to exploit an industrial process based on the Fray, Fathering and Chen (FFC)technology developed in the University's Materials Department by academics of the same name. This novel electrolytic method for reducing metal oxide to metal in a molten salt allows metals and alloys to be produced at a fraction of the current price. It also enables alloys of metals to be produced without melting,which offers the potential to make new alloys previously unattainable with conventional methods.
Professor Derek Fray, Head of the Materials Department at Cambridge and formerly Professor of Mineral Engineering at Leeds University, is the Founder and Director of the company. He says: "The patented technology is a one step process for the production of metals from oxides, and because the process is more energy efficient than traditional methods, we will also greatly reduce environmental impact."
The company was initially supported by the University Challenge Fund, and has received a further £250,000 from The University of Cambridge Venture Capital Fund. It has also appointed Dr Graham Cooley as its new CEO, previously CEO of highly successful Cambridge telecoms components company Antenova, for which he raised £10 million of VC funding (Plate 2).
Plate 2Dr Graham Cooley with an FFC electrochemical cell
Cooley says: "The technology is a very significant step forward and enormously exciting in economic and environmental terms. We will be able to make metals from their oxides at a very low cost and also greatly reduce environmental impact."
For more information about Metalysis, visit our Web site at www.metalysis.com
