Ilmenite smelting

The technology for the production of titania slag by direct reduction smelting in electric arc furnaces (particularly for smelting of iron titanates and ilmenites having lower amounts of titania) is very old and the process has been in vogue in Canada, Norway, South Africa,... 

QIT electromelting Hard rock ilmenite carbothermically smelted at 1700 °C to pig iron and sulphatable Ti02 slag (86-87% Ti02) SOREL, Quebec, Canada... 

Submerged arc smelting process Pre-reduction of ilmenite (50% Ti02) followed by smelting in arc furnace to yield pig iron and titania slag (87% Ti02) TINFOS, Norway... 

Plasma DC arc smelting technology - South Africa Anglo American Corp. Carbothermic smelting of ilmenite in DC arc plasma furnace to yield pig iron and titania slag (A) Namakwa Sands Ltd., South Africa (B) ISCOR, South Africa... 

In the sulfate process, ilmenite (45-60% TiC>2) or a slag rich in titanium (70% T1O2) obtained from electric smelting of ilmenite, is the... 

The principal ore of titanium is ilmenite or ferrous titanate (FeTiOa), and this is the ore mainly used for the production of ferrotitanium by a smelting process. However, its use directly for the production of titanium tetrachloride would be extremely wasteful of chlorine, since a high proportion of this reagent would be used for the production of unwanted ferric chloride. Consequently, chlorination generally involves the less plentiful ore of titanium, rutile, the dioxide (TiOa), which is found in the form of black river and beach sands. This is mixed with ground charcoal or petroleum coke, briquetted, and volatile material removed by heating to 500 to 800°C. Chlorination can be carried out at 700 to 1000°C in a conventional vertical furnace, and the reaction is sufficiently exothermic for it to proceed without the application of external heat, except to raise the temperature of the reactants initially. The reaction may be represented approximately as ... 

Pig iron is obtained from the smelting of hemo-ilmenite with anthracite coal in ac- or dc-electric arc furnaces. Pig iron with typically 4.25 wL% C is commercialized under the tradename Soremetal and has been produced since 1950 by slagging at the metallurgical complex of QIT-Fer Titane in Sorel-Tracy, Qc, Canada and later in the 1970s at Richards Bay Minerals, South Africa. 

When cheap hydroelectricity is available (e.g., in Canada and Norway), the smelting of ilmenite is the preferred option for ilmenites containing less than 58 wt.% TiO, while at higher electric power costs the range of ilmenite for which smelting is preferred is much narrower, up to 52 wt.% TiO,. ... 

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