Patents by Inventor Eric L. Clark

Eric L. Clark has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Process and apparatus for producing lithium from aluminum-lithium alloy scrap in a three-layered lithium transport cell
    Patent number: 4973390
    Abstract: The present invention provides an apparatus for producing lithium from an aluminum-lithium alloy scrap comprising (a) a dryer for removing moisture from solid aluminum-lithium alloy; (b) a reservoir for heating and holding molten aluminum-lithium alloy; (c) a three-layered electrolysis cell comprising a most dense lowest layer of molten aluminum-lithium alloy, a middle layer of molten salt electrolyte, and an uppermost layer of molten lithium; and (d) a reactive gas fluxing unit to remove water present in the molten salt.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 11, 1988
    Date of Patent: November 27, 1990
    Assignee: Aluminum Company of America
    Inventors: Roy A. Christini, Eric L. Clark, Robert D. Girt
  • Lithium transport cell process
    Patent number: 4780186
    Abstract: The present invention provides a process for recovering lithium from an aluminum-lithium alloy scrap including heating a lithium chloride-potassium chloride-lithium fluoride salt mixture in a separate bath melter vessel to form a molten salt bath reservoir; fluxing the molten salt with chlorine or hydrogen chloride gas to remove moisture; drying the aluminum-lithium scrap; heating the dried aluminum-lithium alloy scrap to form a molten reservoir of aluminum-lithium alloy; feeding low moisture molten salt and aluminum-lithium alloy to a three-layered electrolysis cell comprising a most dense lowest layer of molten aluminum-lithium alloy, a middle layer of molten salt electrolyte, and an uppermost layer of molten lithium; passing direct current through the cell with the aluminum-lithium alloy anodic; reducing lithium ions to lithium metal at a cathode suspended in the molten salt electrolyte; and removing lithium from said uppermost layer in said three-layered electrolysis cell.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 22, 1987
    Date of Patent: October 25, 1988
    Assignee: Aluminum Company of America
    Inventors: Roy A. Christini, Eric L. Clark, Kenneth A. Bowman