Method and equipment for comprehensive utilization of niobite

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12359281-B2
Application number	US-202218061998-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 5, 2022
Priority date	Jun 17, 2022
Publication date	Jul 15, 2025
Grant date	Jul 15, 2025

Abstract

A method and an equipment for comprehensive utilization of niobite is disclosed. The method includes the following steps: S1. adding and uniformly mixing a coal-based reducing agent to the niobite, and subsequently reducing the mixture in a reduction furnace to obtain the selective reduction product; S2. adding the selective reduction product to a super-gravity reactor where the ambient temperature is controlled to be lower than the temperature at which the niobium oxide is reduced; driven by super-gravity, reverse migrating and collecting the metal iron and the niobium-rich slag at different locations in the reactor; discharging the metallic iron tightly attached to the wall of the reactor through an iron discharging port, and discharging the niobium-rich slag enriched to the inner layer of the reactor through a slag discharging port, so that the separation of the metallic iron and the niobium-rich slag is realized in the super-gravity field.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for comprehensive utilization of niobite with a niobium content of 1.17 wt %, comprising the following steps:
S1, mixing 200 kg of the niobite containing 1.17 wt % of the niobium with coal powder in a C/O ratio, wherein the C/O ratio is the atomic percentage ratio of a carbon content in the coal powder to an oxygen content of iron oxide in the niobite, of 1.0 to obtain a mixture, and then heating the mixture to 1050° C. in a reduction furnace and holding for 120 minutes to obtain a reduction product;
S2, adding the reduction product into a super-gravity reactor through a diversion system; an ambient temperature in the super-gravity reactor is 1200° C.; turning on a centrifugal rotating system, comprising driving the super-gravity reactor by an electric motor to rotate at high speed in a horizontal direction which generates a horizontal outward supergravity field; driving metallic iron and a niobium-rich slag by super-gravity to migrate in opposite directions and aggregate separately; controlling a gravity coefficient and a driving time to be 600 g and 5 minutes respectively; after the migration is completed, turning off the electric motor; taking samples out for analysis; wherein a Fe content in the metallic iron phase is 98.69%; wherein a Nb content in the niobium-rich slag phase is 4.67%.

2. A method for comprehensive utilization of niobite with a niobium content of 1.04 wt %, comprising the following steps:
S1, mixing 200 kg of the niobite containing 1.04 wt % of the niobium with coal powder in a C/O ratio, wherein the C/O ratio is the atomic percentage ratio of a carbon content in the coal powder to an oxygen content of iron oxide in the niobite, of 1.5 to obtain a mixture, and then heating the mixture to 1250° C. in a reduction furnace and holding for 80 minutes to obtain a reduction product;
S2, adding the reduction product into a super-gravity reactor through a diversion system; an ambient temperature in the super-gravity reactor is 1250° C.; turning on a centrifugal rotating system, comprising driving the super-gravity reactor by an electric motor to rotate at high speed in a horizontal direction which generates a horizontal outward supergravity field; driving metallic iron and a niobium-rich slag by super-gravity to migrate in opposite directions and aggregate separately; controlling a gravity coefficient and a driving time to be 1000 g and 10 minutes respectively after the migration is completed, turning off the electric motor; taking samples out for analysis; wherein a Fe content in the metallic iron phase is 98.12%; wherein a Nb content in the niobium-rich slag phase is 4.98%.

Assignees

• Univ Beijing Science & Technology

Inventors

• Lan Xi
• Guo Zhancheng
• Gao Jintao
• Wang Zengwu
• Feng Guoliang
• Li Xiang
• Yuan Rong

Classifications

• C22B5/10 Primary

  by solid carbonaceous reducing agents · CPC title

• C22B34/24 Primary

  Obtaining niobium or tantalum · CPC title

• Y02P10/20

  Recycling · CPC title

• C21B13/0066 Primary

  Preliminary conditioning of the solid carbonaceous reductant · CPC title