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A Novel Process for Direct Reduction of Titanium Concentrate Pellets in a Gas-Based Shaft Furnace

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Abstract

Ilmenite is an important mineral resource containing Fe and Ti, and titanium concentrate can be obtained after beneficiation. Through the preparation of titanium concentrate oxidized pellets, gas-based shaft furnace reduction experiments, and melting and separation experiments, the phase changes during the roasting process of titanium concentrate oxidized pellets were studied. The effects of different reduction temperatures and atmospheres on the reduction degree and expansion of titanium concentrate pellets were studied, and the reduction melting products were analyzed and evaluated. The research results indicate that the degree of oxidation of titanium concentrate oxidized pellets increases with the increase of roasting temperature. The reduction degree of titanium concentrate pellets also increases with the increase of reduction temperature and H2 content in the reduction atmosphere. The reduction expansion rate of pellets increases with the increase of reduction temperature and CO content in the reduced atmosphere. The phase components in the reduced oxidized titanium concentrate pellets are MgTi2O5, TiO2, and Fe. In the melting products, the recovery rate of iron in molten iron is 98%, the recovery rate in slag TiO2 is 96%, and the grade of titanium in titanium-rich slag is 74%. The efficient comprehensive utilization of iron and titanium in titanium concentrate has been achieved.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are especially grateful to the Science and Technology Plan Project of Liaoning Province (2022JH24/10200027), the Seventh Batch of Ten Thousand Talents Plan (ZX20220553), and special thanks are due to the instrumental analysis from Analytical and Testing Center, Northeastern University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Metallurgy, Northeastern University, Shenyang, People’s Republic of China

    Quan Shi & Jue Tang

  2. Liaoning Low-Carbon Steelmaking Technology Engineering Research Center, Shenyang, People’s Republic of China

    Quan Shi & Jue Tang

  3. Engineering Research Center of Frontier Technologies for Low-Carbon Steelmaking (Ministry of Education), Shenyang, People’s Republic of China

    Quan Shi, Jue Tang & Mansheng Chu

  4. State Key Laboratory of Rolling and Automation, Northeastern University, Shenyang, People’s Republic of China

    Mansheng Chu

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  1. Quan Shi
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  2. Jue Tang
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Correspondence to Jue Tang.

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The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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The contributing editor for this article was Hongmin Zhu.

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Shi, Q., Tang, J. & Chu, M. A Novel Process for Direct Reduction of Titanium Concentrate Pellets in a Gas-Based Shaft Furnace. J. Sustain. Metall. 9, 1620–1635 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40831-023-00752-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40831-023-00752-8

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