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Energy to extract elements in the form of electrolysis

I am doing a task for school and have searched all over the internet and in several local libraries and can't find a lot of RELEVANT and USEFUL information. My task is to research how energy is required to extract elements from their naturally occurring sources, describing the effects of light on silver salts.(Identify an application of the use of this reaction). Also to describe how electricity in the form of electrolysis is used to extract elements from their naturally occurring sources and give everyday examples of its use. If you could please explain this process, or point me to some sites that you think may be helpful it would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Matt F
n/a - Sydney, Australia
2003

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Librarians often have BA or MA degrees in research and library science, so if you've been to several libraries and gotten nowhere, I think you should return to any one of them and ask the librarian for help. But unless I am misreading, the biggest part of your problem is that you really don't understand the question or what you are supposed to be researching, because you have presented us with a hodgepodge about electrolysis, and refining, and applications of silver salts, and applications of refining processes, etc., etc., etc.

I would suggest that you investigate any one metal--maybe it should be silver in view of your specific questions, or maybe that was just an example, and you could research a different metal like nickel.

I am not involved in work with raw ores, so I might be wrong, but I don't think any metal is recovered from naturally occurring sources by electrolysis. Yes, electrolysis can be one step in the refining or purification stages, but I don't think rocks are crushed up and directly electrolysed. Even if they were, the digging and transportation to the electrolysis unit would comprise additional energy inputs.

To the very narrow question of the relationship between energy use and recovery of metal by electrolysis, though, Faraday's Law will give you the exacting numbers you are looking for.

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
2003