首页|Overview of in-situ oxygen production technologies for lunar resources

Overview of in-situ oxygen production technologies for lunar resources

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The rich resources and unique environment of the Moon make it an ideal location for human expansion and the utilization of extraterrestrial resources.Oxygen,crucial for supporting human life on the Moon,can be extracted from lunar regolith,which is highly rich in oxygen and contains polymetallic oxides.This oxygen and metal extraction can be achieved using existing metallurgical tech-niques.Furthermore,the ample reserves of water ice on the Moon offer another means for oxygen production.This paper offers a de-tailed overview of the leading technologies for achieving oxygen production on the Moon,drawing from an analysis of lunar resources and environmental conditions.It delves into the principles,processes,advantages,and drawbacks of water-ice electrolysis,two-step oxy-gen production from lunar regolith,and one-step oxygen production from lunar regolith.The two-step methods involve hydrogen reduc-tion,carbothermal reduction,and hydrometallurgy,while the one-step methods encompass fluorination/chlorination,high-temperature de-composition,molten salt electrolysis,and molten regolith electrolysis(MOE).Following a thorough comparison of raw materials,equip-ment,technology,and economic viability,MOE is identified as the most promising approach for future in-situ oxygen production on the Moon.Considering the corrosion characteristics of molten lunar regolith at high temperatures,along with the Moon's low-gravity envir-onment,the development of inexpensive and stable inert anodes and electrolysis devices that can easily collect oxygen is critical for pro-moting MOE technology on the Moon.This review significantly contributes to our understanding of in-situ oxygen production technolo-gies on the Moon and supports upcoming lunar exploration initiatives.

lunar resourcesin-situ oxygen productionspace metallurgymolten lunar regolith electrolysis

Youpeng Xu、Sheng Pang、Liangwei Cong、Guoyu Qian、Dong Wang、Laishi Li、Yusheng Wu、Zhi Wang

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College of Materials Science and Engineering,Shenyang University of Technology,Shenyang 110870,China

CAS Key Laboratory of Green Process and Engineering,National Engineering Research Center for Green Recycling of Strategic Metal Resources,Institute of Process Engineering,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing 100190,China

Innovation Academy for Green Manufacture,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing 100190,China

School of Chemical Engineering,University of Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing 100049,China

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2025

矿物冶金与材料学报
北京科技大学

矿物冶金与材料学报

影响因子:0.609
ISSN:1674-4799
年,卷(期):2025.32(2)