Producing a titanium product

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10190191-B2
Application number	US-201414912846-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 19, 2014
Priority date	Aug 19, 2013
Publication date	Jan 29, 2019
Grant date	Jan 29, 2019

Abstract

A method ( 400 ) for producing a titanium product is disclosed. The method ( 400 ) can include obtaining TiO 2 -slag ( 401 ), and producing a titanium product from the TiO 2 -slag using a metallic reducing agent ( 402 ) at a moderate temperature and a pressure to directly produce a titanium product chemically separated from metal impurities in the TiO 2 slag ( 403 ). The titanium product can comprise TiH 2 and optionally elemental titanium. Impurities in the titanium product can then removed ( 404 ) by leaching, purifying and separation to form a purified titanium product.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for producing a titanium product, comprising:
obtaining TiO 2 -slag;
producing the titanium product from the TiO 2 -slag using a metallic reducing agent at a moderate temperature under a hydrogen atmosphere at a pressure to directly produce the titanium product chemically separated from metal impurities in the TiO 2 -slag, wherein the titanium product comprises TiH 2 and optionally elemental titanium;
removing the metal impurities from the titanium product to form a purified titanium product; and
deoxygenating the titanium product at a higher temperature above the moderate temperature and under hydrogen atmosphere using a second reducing agent which is stronger than the metallic reducing agent to produce a particulate titanium product, coarsening the particulate titanium product to a target particle size range, and cooling the particulate titanium product under a hydrogen atmosphere.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of producing the titanium product includes reducing the TiO 2 -slag directly with the metallic reducing agent.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of producing includes pre-treating the TiO 2 -slag to produce intermediate products including at least one of water-washed derivatives of sodium titanate, metatitanic acid, and substantially pure titanium dioxide and then reducing the intermediate products using the metallic reducing agent.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the metallic reducing agent comprises at least one of Mg, MgH 2 , and CaH 2 .

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the producing the titanium product from the TiO 2 -slag comprises combining the TiO 2 -slag, the metallic reducing agent, and a salt.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the salt comprises at least one of a mono-metal chloride salt, binary chloride salt, and a ternary chloride salt.

7. The method of claim 5 , wherein the salt comprises at least one of MgCl 2 +NaCl, MgCl 2 +KCl, and MgCl 2 +CaCl 2 .

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising dehydriding the purified titanium product to form titanium powder.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising deep-deoxidizing the purified titanium product to reduce residual oxygen in the purified titanium product.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the moderate temperature is between about 400° C. and about 1200° C.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein obtaining the TiO 2 -slag comprises carbothermally reducing a titanium feedstock comprising at least one of ilmenite, natural rutile, and leucoxene.

Assignees

• Univ Utah Res Found

Inventors

• Fang Zhigang Zak
• Fan Peng
• Middlemas Scott
• Guo Jun
• Zhang Ying
• Free Michael
• Sathyapalan Amarchand
• Xia Yang

Classifications

• B22F2301/205

  Titanium, zirconium or hafnium · CPC title

• C22B34/1286

  using hydrogen containing agents, e.g. H2, CaH2, hydrocarbons · CPC title

• C01B6/02

  Hydrides of transition elements; Addition complexes thereof · CPC title

• C22B1/02

  Roasting processes (C22B1/16 takes precedence) · CPC title

• C22B34/1204

  preliminary treatment of ores or scrap to eliminate non- titanium constituents, e.g. iron, without attacking the titanium constituent · CPC title