GB582357A - Improvements in or relating to the production of anhydrous magnesium chloride - Google Patents

Abstract

<PICT:0582357/III/1> In the production of anhydrous magnesium chloride, a pulverous material comprising at least 20 per cent. of magnesia (of a kind capable of self-setting rapidly at room temperatures when mixed with water) is fed to a moving surface where an aqueous medium is supplied thereto in such quantity that the material forms with the assistance, if desired, of a coating of light powder of reaction materials, into spheroidal pieces which are not wet enough to adhere to one another, the pieces without substantial change in shape being subjected to chlorination at elevated temperatures in the presence of a reducing agent after or without a period of standing with or without warming and with or without baking or kilning. As shown in the drawing, a mixture of carbon and finely milled magnesia is fed by a screw conveyer 14 into one end of a rotary cylinder 15 coaxially disposed within and fixed to a tapered drum 18. The drum is mounted on a platform 23 pivotally supported at one end 16 and mounted at the other end on a jack 32. The cylinder 15 accommodates a sieve 27 through which very fine material passes and is returned to the conveyer by means of a lift 33. Water is fed into the drum by two perforated pipes 28, 29 extending parallel to each other along the full length of the drum. The spheroidal pieces, ranging from 1/16 in. to 1 1/2 in. in diameter escape through an annular end wall 41 and gravitate through a chute 43 into a receptacle 44 from which they are fed to a chlorination furnace. The reducing agent in a finely divided form is preferably incorporated with the magnesia before adding the water which may contain magnesium chloride, p sodium and potassium chlorides or other soluble salts, or if desired the reducing agent in gaseous form, e.g., carbon monoxide, may be fed separately into the chlorinator. The reaction materials may include carbon, peat, sawdust, sodium and potassium chlorides, magnesium carbonate, magnesium oxychloride, non-setting-magnesia and solid magnesium chloride hydrates. Specifications 259,498, 333,741, [both in Class 1 (iii)], and 548,800 are referred to.