If not, why? If so, what is the process (example) and what are its benefits and limitations?
I was asking myself about this as well
In principle, yes it can, but it's not the way iron is normally obtained. If you had a watter soluble iron salt, e.g. FeCl3 and subjected it to electrolysis, Fe3+ ions would migrate to the cathode, pick up three electrons and deposit there as iron metal. The problem, however, is that iron will corrode in this solution,so there are much better ways to obtain the metal. Since the oxide is one of the principle ores, either in the form of hematite, limonite or magnetite, any of these can be converted to the metal directly by aluminothermy, also known as the thermite process. The oxide is pulverized and mixed with a stoichiometric amount of aluminum powder. Ignition produces a lot of heat and molten iron is generated in the process.
