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Mechanisms of Hydrogen-Assisted Magnesiothermic Reduction of TiO2

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Abstract

Direct reduction of TiO2 powder has been attempted for decades by researchers in an effort to decrease titanium (Ti) metal production costs. The main objective has been to avoid energy-intensive steps involved in production of primary Ti by the Kroll process. The emerging hydrogen-assisted magnesiothermic reduction process, which uses Mg to directly reduce TiO2 powder under a H2 atmosphere, has been shown to have the potential to compete directly with the Kroll process. The present studies represent an effort to understand the reduction reaction mechanisms of this process. Phase transformations and the reaction pathways are examined by SEM/EDX analysis of partially reduced powder cross-sectional, X-ray diffraction, and other analytical techniques. The results show important morphological changes, the prominent intermediate and final phases under the H2 atmosphere, as well as the local deposition behavior of the MgO byproduct. The effect of the specific surface areas of the initial particles is also discussed.

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Adapted from Ref. [31]

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Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), under contract number DE-AR0000420. The authors would also like to thank the corporate partners on the project, and the resources of the University of Utah. Additionally, a special thanks is extended to Material Data System (MDI) for their extension of an academic loan of Jade 2010 for XRD analysis, as well as KS Analytical Systems for helping to facilitate this arrangement.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Metallurgical Engineering, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112, USA

    Hyrum Lefler, Z. Zak Fang, Ying Zhang, Pei Sun & Yang Xia

  2. Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China

    Ying Zhang

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  1. Hyrum Lefler
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  2. Z. Zak Fang
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  3. Ying Zhang
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  4. Pei Sun
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  5. Yang Xia
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Correspondence to Z. Zak Fang or Ying Zhang.

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Manuscript submitted December 27, 2017.

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Lefler, H., Fang, Z.Z., Zhang, Y. et al. Mechanisms of Hydrogen-Assisted Magnesiothermic Reduction of TiO2. Metall Mater Trans B 49, 2998–3006 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11663-018-1399-0

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