Extraction of titania from ilmenite

This thesis is an account of an investigation of a process for separating titanium dioxide from ilmenite. The process makes use of three chemical reactions, all conducted at high temperatures. Ilmenite is first oxidised with air, the oxidised ilmenite is then treated with chlorine,' and finally the ferric chloride an.d oxygen produced by the action of chlorine upon oxidised ilmenite are reacted to release chlorine for further use in the process. The application of this process to the treatment of ilmenite from beach sand deposits is the subjec~ of this investigation. The work reported in this thesis covers three aspects of the application of the.process to the treatment of ilmenite sands and the thesis is accordingly divided into three sections. Ilmenite from beaoh sand deposits is physically well suited to treatment in fluidised beds. The first section of this thesis is an account of a study of the fluidising oharaoteristios of ilmenite sands and of their amenability to treatment at high temperatures with air and chlorine in fluidised beds. The second section of this thesis is a report of a study of the thermodynamics of the three chemical reactions involved in the process. Not all the data necessary for this study are available from the literature and some thermochemical quantities have been determined from measurements of equilibrium states. The third section of this thesis is an account of preliminary studies of the rates at which ilmenite sands react at high temperatures with air and chlorine when in a fluidised state. The progress of the investigation is then reviewed and future work is outlined.

Author dc:creator

• Ketteridge, Ian Bruce

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/2440/116835

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digital.library.adelaide.edu.au:2440/116835