Technology to disrupt
the metals industry:
clean, safe, and
urgently needed
High-Temperature Electrolysis makes refining:
faster
cleaner
cost-effective
YOUR PARTNER IN ADVANCED METALLURGY
High-Temperature Electrolysis is the future of metallurgy
WHAT MAKES IT DIFFERENT?
A platform technology
High-Temperature Electrolysis, a major departure from legacy metals production, uses electricity to turn dirt into metal at commercial scale.
It's a platform technology. The High-Temperature Electrolysis platform addresses many metals. The cell design and knowledge transfer from chemistry to chemistry.
Sadoway High-Temperature Electrolysis will displace the legacy technology and disrupt the metals industry.
Cleaner
High-Temperature Electrolysis operates with near zero emissions to air, water, and soil, allowing faster permitting, and easier siting than current smelting technology.
No coal means dramatically lower emissions. Consider the end of the legacy technology.
Cost effective
High-Temperature Electrolysis is less costly than the current technology. If sited near low-cost power, such as hydropower, the cost is exceptionally low. Higher energy efficiency means competitive unit economics at today's electricity prices.
A simpler flowsheet. Fewer process steps mean lower capital cost and dramatic reduction in OpEx.
Smaller footprint. The High-Temperature Electrolysis smelter has a footprint that is 1/10th the area of a conventional smelter.
Bespoke advanced metallurgy
Phase 1
Demonstrate at lab scale
Sadoway Laboratory cell
Develop bespoke formula tailored to make metal from given ore body.
Phase 3
De-risk pilot scale
Sadoway Laboratory pilot cell
The pilot-scale cell is designed for continuous operation — periodic feeding of the cell and tapping of liquid metal. Cell currents may be several thousand amperes. The results obtained inform the design of the commercial-scale cell and give performance data such as purity of primary metal and MWh/tonne to produce metal.
Phase 2
Scale up
Sadoway Laboratory self-heating cell
Upscale the process to minimum viable self-heating cell and obtaining the level of purity the customer requires.
Phase 4
Construction of industrial smelter
Customer site
The Sadoway smelter will be constructed by Hatch to produce thousands of tonnes of metal per year. It will be sited, according to the customer’s specifications, near the mining site, transportation hub, or low-cost energy source.
The Sadoway refinery is a one-floor, modular design, with 10×10×10’ cells arranged in pairs. Smelter size determines output. With antimony, for example, the cells in the Sadoway refinery are each capable of processing one tonne of metal per day. A refinery built with 28 cells could producer 10,000 tonnes annually.
OUR PLATFORM TECHNOLOGY
Start with the periodic table
The science behind High-Temperature Electrolysis is not speculative. All of the world's aluminum today is produced by a variant of High-Temperature Electrolysis.
Sadoway has extended the approach to a much broader family of metals, including iron (licensed to Boston Metal, where he was co-founder), titanium (developed with Norway's Elkem), and now vanadium, uranium, scandium, rare earths, antimony and others.
60+
Elements on the periodic table are appropriate for High-Temperature Electrolysis, including rare earths.
Antimony
Titanium
Gallium
Neodymian
Lithium
Beryllium
Boran
Sodium
Magnesium
Aluminum
Silicon
Neodymium
Holmium
Uranium
Tungsten
Rhenium
Osmium
Potassium
Calcium
Scandium
Titanium
Vanadium
Chromium
Manganese
Iron
Cobalt
Nickel
Copper
Samarium
Erbium
Lutetium
Iridium
Platinum
Gold
Zinc
Gallium
Germanium
Rubidium
Strontium
Yttrium
Zirconium
Niobium
Molybdenum
Ruthenium
Rhodium
Europium
Thulium
Lead
Bismuth
Lanthanum
Disprosium
Palladium
Silver
Cadmium
Indium
Tin
Antimony
Tellurium
Cesium
Barium
Hafnium
Tantalum
Gadolinium
Ytterbium
Cerium
Praseodymium
Terbium
POWERING CRITICAL MINERAL SUPPLY CHAINS
The Sadoway Laboratory
The Sadoway Laboratory is the only one of its kind, pioneering clean energy and manufacturing through extreme electrochemistry. The lab is a crucible of innovation, where we take on high‑impact, ambitious metallurgy projects aimed at solving industrial sustainability challenges. Founded by Professor Donald Sadoway, the Sadoway Laboratory was established to break free from traditional university research constraints and accelerate radical innovation in metals production.
YOUR PARTNER IN ADVANCED METALLURGY
Click to expand image
The Sadoway refinery will cut years and costs associated with permitting legacy smelters, replacing the old belching, polluting smelters with clean, small scale refineries that operate on a far smaller footprint than is currently in use.
The Sadoway refinery, owning to small scale and modular design, can be sited near the mine, transportation hub, or low-cost power source.
The costs sited here are based on a technoeconomic analysis of a Sadoway refinery processing antimony.
The “one-pot” process slims down the conventional multi-step flow sheet into few unit operations. The reduction in OpEx and CepEx is considerable.
OPERATIONAL CONCEPT
The Sadoway refinery on site
THE INCREDIBLY SIMPLE LOGISTIC SOLUTION
The Sadoway refinery will replace the legacy smelters with low-emission, cost effective operations.
The Sadoway refinery operates with a double row of 10’x10’x10’ smelter units. This one-story smelter design is modular and scalable.