No abstract

In this research, the carbothermal reduction of Langkawi ilmenite ore, FeTiO3 had been conducted by using coke as carbon reductant. All samples were grinded into size of ≤ 63 µm and pelletized using 2.5 g mixture of ilmenite ore with coke based on C/O molar ratio of 1:3 (carbon to reducible oxygen). The carbothermal reduction was conducted in a horizontal tube furnace using 0.1 L/min of argon gas flow at temperature of 1200°C. The ultimate and proximate analysis of carbon reductant was investigated using carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and sulfur (CHONS) analyzer. The phase evolutions and chemical composition analysis was conducted using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) for raw ilmenite and reduced ilmenite with coke, respectively. The reduction time was set with 2, 3 and 4 hours to understand the phase evolutions. It was found that Langkawi ilmenite ore contained mainly higher TiO2 and hematite, Fe2O3 where the phases of FeTiO3 and titanomagnetite, (Fe2TiO4-Fe3O4) were detected using XRD. The phase of FeTiO3 evolved into the production of Fe, FeO, TiC, TiO2 and Fe3C when increased the reduction time from 2 to 4 hours. The amount of Fe2O3 production was decreased from 59.16 to 47.02 wt%, while higher value of TiO2 was obtained, increasing from 25.2 to 29.1 wt% due to the reduction of TiO2 to Ti3O5 as the reduction time increased. TiC content is also detected when the reduction time increased by reducing TiCxOy into TiC.