Process for preparing titanium sponge from titanium oxide composite ore

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method for preparing spongy titanium by using titanium oxide composite ore, and said method includes the following steps: firstly, liquating the composite ore raw material containing titanium dioxide is a selected molten-salt system under the condition of 1000-1100 deg.C, then inserting the graphite cathode and tubular solid oxygen permeable membrane whose internal surface is covered with a porous metal ceramic coating layer as anode into the above-mentioned mixed molten-salt in a heating container or crucible together, and introducing hydrogen gas in the high-temp. ceramic pipe of anode end to make electrolysis under the action of a certain voltage and current of D.C. power supply, and finally obtaining metal titanium on the cathode end.

Description

technical field [0001] The invention relates to a method for preparing sponge titanium from titanium oxide composite ore, which belongs to the technical field of pure metal preparation by electrolysis. Background technique [0002] Many countries have carried out the industrial production of sponge titanium. The possible ways to prepare sponge titanium by using natural rutile and titanium slag as raw materials are: the reduction method of titanium oxide, the reduction method of titanium halide, the electrolysis method of titanium compound and the thermal decomposition method of titanium halide. Considering factors such as production cost and quality of titanium sponge, only two methods have been industrialized. One is the Kroll method in which magnesium reduces titanium tetrachloride to produce sponge titanium, and the other is the Hunter method in which sodium reduces titanium tetrachloride to produce sponge titanium. Although the Hunter method has certain advantages, it ...

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Problems solved by technology

Although the Hunter method has certain advantages, it cannot compete with the magnesium reduction method due to reasons such as difficult expansion of production scale, high sodium price, and high chlorine content in the product.

Although the existing sponge titanium production process has made some major improvements in the raw materials, chlorination process, refining process, and reduction-vacuum distillation process for the traditional Krall process, the recovery rate of titanium and the utilization rate of magnesium and chlorine can be improved. , power consumption and fuel consumption can be reduced, but at present, due to discontinuous production and high comprehensive energy consumption, the production cost is too high, which makes the global titanium production insufficient, which also limits the application of titanium

For many years, the experimental research on the production of titanium sponge by electrolysis of titanium tetrachloride molten salt has been going on all over the world. Scientific researchers have been inspired by the development process of metal aluminum, hoping to replace metal thermal reduction with electrolysis to produce titanium metal. Thereby greatly reducing production costs, but ultimately failed due to factors such as technical difficulty, low current efficiency (less than 50%), high power consumption (greater than 40,000 kilowatt hours), high investment, and market fluctuations.

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