Intensification of Sulfuric Acid Leaching of Altered Ilmenite via Adding Fluoride Activator

Abstract

A new method of altered ilmenite processing has been studied. In this method, sulfuric acid is used as the reaction medium of the process, and fluoride ions are activators of the dissolving process of the rutile part of the ore raw material. The regression model of the sulfate–fluoride leaching process was developed and analyzed by using the response surface method of 23 matrix. The obtained model is adequate and well describes the studied process. The influence of Ti:F molar ratio, temperature, and sulfuric acid concentration on the leaching process are investigated in this work in order to optimize the studied process. It is experimentally proved that leaching at temperatures above 100 °C, at a molar ratio of Ti:F of more than 1:2, and the use of solutions of sulfuric acid with concentrations of more than 85 wt.% is not optimal because the extraction degree of titanium is reduced. The intensification of the process of sulfuric acid leaching by dividing the main stage of chemical dissolution of ilmenite into two stages was proposed. This method allows to leach up to 95.9% of titanium, which is 1.6–1.9 times higher in comparison with the classical technology of leaching altered ilmenite.

Thermodynamics and Kinetics Research of the Fluorination Process of the Concentrate Rutile

“…Fluorination of rutile must be carried out in two stages. At the first stage, according to reactions (2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10), in an excess of elemental fluorine at 1500-2000 K, the process of fluorination of rutile concentrates proceeds.…”

“…At opening, TiF 6 2− is first formed, which, upon subsequent interaction with H 2 SO 4 , forms Ti(SO 4 ) 2 [5]. In [6][7][8], the process of sulfate-fluoride leaching of titanium from ilmenite and the formation of fluorotitanate ions in aqueous solutions and the subsequent synthesis of Ti(SO 4 ) 2 in a sulfuric acid medium is proposed. In fact, this is a modification of the well-known sulfate technology of titanium ore opening.…”

Research on the process and mechanism of preparing titanium-rich materials from complex ilmenite

“…Furthermore, the use of wet milling with magnetic separation effectively separated the slag iron, a TiO 2 grade of 81.63%, an iron content of 4.53%, and a TiO 2 recovery of 93.43% [14]. Nevertheless, electric furnace smelting exhibits a number of drawbacks, notably the inability to remove impurities such as calcium, magnesium, and silicon from the ferro-titanium concentrate [11,[15][16][17]. The reduction rusting method involves iron oxides reduction to metallic iron using solid-phase reductants, followed by treatment with aqueous acid solution, which generates a high-grade artificial rutile product.…”