US Patent Issued to Battelle Savannah River Alliance on Sept. 16 for "Localized electrorefining of metals and alloys" (South Carolina, Georgia Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,416,094, issued on Sept. 16, was assigned to Battelle Savannah River Alliance LLC (Aiken, S.C.).

"Localized electrorefining of metals and alloys" was invented by Brenda L. Garcia-Diaz (Aiken, S.C.), Christopher S. Dandeneau (Augusta, Ga.) and Dale A. Hitchcock (Aiken, S.C.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Methods and systems for use in targeted removal of metals from a substrate via electrorefining are described. A self-propagating reaction is initiated by use of a thermite to reach high temperatures sufficient to induce localized melting of a salt situated on a metal or alloy substrate. Using a power supply connected to an electrode asse...