A Molten-Salt Electrolysis Recycler for Orbital Recovery of Aluminium from Scrap: Cell Voltage, Faraday and Thermal Budgets

This paper presents a computed design study, SIMULATED, NOT MEASURED, for recovered aluminium metal and reusable alloying fractions in orbit, using aluminium scrap, failed printed parts and machining swarf in a calcium chloride bath. The operating principle is distinct from neighbouring production methods: scrap aluminium and mixed light-alloy waste are dissolved and re-won electrochemically in a molten calcium chloride bath near 1150 kelvin, following the solid-oxide reduction route demonstrated terrestrially for metal recycling. Contaminated or off-specification printed parts, which no remelting furnace can separate cleanly, become feedstock again. Faraday's law fixes the charge per kilogram and the cell voltage fixes the energy; both are computed rather than assumed. Sizing follows from budgets computed in the accompanying script rather than from analogy with terrestrial equipment. The headline figures are a specific energy of 40.6 megajoules per kilogram of product, an installed electrical power of 6 kilowatts, a production rate of 0.533 kilograms per hour, and an annual throughput of 4.22e+03 kilograms over 330 operating days. Rejecting 3.3 kilowatts of waste heat at 355 kelvin requires 4.16 square metres of radiator, a photovoltaic supply requires 14.7 square metres of array, and the installed mass is 817 kilograms. Moving feedstock from a 400 kilometre to an 800 kilometre orbit costs 217 metres per second of velocity change. The study is a computed study with no targeting or weapon application; it concerns civilian production equipment only, and none of its figures is a measurement.