JPS5920433A - Production of titanium with economized resource and energy - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain sponge Ti with considerably economized resources by the stages which are combined in a closed circuit, by producing metallic Mg by using an Al or Si alloy made directly from carbonaceous fuel in a shaft furnace and reducing TiCl4 with the Mg. CONSTITUTION:Metallic mg is produced from an Si or Al alloy produced by a shaft furnace having high thermal efficiency, and TiCl4 of high purity is reduced by the metallic Mg to produce sponge Ti. The MgCl2 which is by-produced in this stage is decomposed with water or steam to yield gaseous HCl; on the other hand, the MgO which is produced by the same is used as a raw material for producing the above-described metallic Mg. An intermediate raw material is thus regenerated in the sytem and the consumption of electric power is considerably reduced. Known parts exist in the several stages to be constituted in the execution of this method but when the stages are constituted as the entire system, the enrgy and resources are economized considerably.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention produces aluminum or silicon alloys directly using carbonaceous fuel in a shaft furnace, and then concentrates and fractionates these alloys if necessary, and then uses them to produce metallic magnesium, The present invention relates to a method for producing titanium, which is characterized in that titanium tetrachloride is then reduced with this magnesium to produce titanium sponge, and these steps are combined in a closed circuit, resulting in significant resource savings.

Conventionally, titanium sponge is produced by reducing titanium oxides such as rutile with coke using chlorine produced by electrolyzing magnesium chloride, and then chlorinating the resulting titanium tetrachloride. High-purity titanium tetrachloride can be produced using the so-called "Roll method" in which high-purity titanium tetrachloride is reduced using magnesium also produced by electrolysis, and chlorine and sodium are similarly produced by electrolyzing sodium chloride. (Lina) The so-called Hunter method for IJum reduction has been industrialized. These methods obviously require a large amount of energy for electrolysis.

In the Kroll method, the cost per unit of titanium sponge is 30,000-
It consumes 36,000 kwh of electricity, of which 70 g is used for magnesium electrolysis.

Even aluminum, which requires a large amount of power to manufacture, requires only 14,000 kWh of power per unit to electrolyze. The atomic weight of tetravalent titanium is 47.9, and that of trivalent aluminum is 26.98, so it should be titanium. Therefore, it is clear that methods that consume a large amount of power as described above are currently extremely undesirable.

The present inventor noticed that blast furnaces used in the steel industry have extremely high thermal efficiency, and researched methods for producing silicon, aluminum, and their alloys using shaft furnaces. As a result, we gained knowledge of these manufacturing methods, produced magnesium from these alloys, used it to reduce high-purity titanium tetrachloride to produce titanium, and decomposed the by-produced magnesium chloride with water or steam. By using the produced magnesium oxide as a raw material for producing magnesium, we have come up with a closed-circuit method that allows us to regenerate intermediate raw materials within the system and significantly reduce the amount of electricity used. The data from the experimental results prove that it is extremely resource-saving.

The method of the present invention consists of four (or five) steps as shown in FIG. In the first step 11, silica, kaolin, zeexite tube-wrapped silicic acid raw materials, and alumina-containing raw materials are placed in a shaft furnace. It is charged together with fuel (reducing agent), and combustion supporting gas with a high oxygen concentration is blown from the bottom of the furnace to burn the coke and reduce silicic acid, alumina minerals, and if necessary oxide ores such as iron. This is the stage where the molten metal is extracted as an alloy of silicon, aluminum, iron, etc. This process may also include a step of concentrating and separating silicon or aluminum from the molten alloy, if necessary.

The second step 12 is a step of thermally producing magnesium using this silicon or aluminum alloy, using a method known as, for example, the magnesium method or the vision method. There are other methods of thermally producing magnesium (all of which are known, and any method using silicon, aluminum, and their alloys may be used.
4-23738, which uses only aluminum from a molten metal containing both silicon and aluminum, can also be adopted.

The third step is a method known as the Schossnoger method, but it has not been carried out industrially.

Relatively inexpensive raw materials such as ilmenite and titanium slag are dissolved in sulfuric acid, filtered with P and cooled to remove impurities, passed through potassium chloride and hydrochloric acid gas to obtain potassium chloride titanate crystals, and then dissolved in dry hydrochloric acid gas. After sufficiently drying,
It consists of step 13 of decomposing at 300 to 500° C. to obtain pure titanium tetrachloride, and step 14 of reacting the obtained high-purity titanium tetrachloride with the magnesium obtained in the second step to obtain titanium sponge. . At this stage, magnesium chloride is produced as a by-product.

The fourth step 15 is a step in which this magnesium chloride is steam decomposed to obtain magnesium oxide and hydrochloric acid gas, and these are returned to the second step and third step, respectively, to complete the circulation system.

FIG. 1 shows each process of the present invention and the raw materials, intermediate raw materials, and finished products that go in and out of the process. In the figure, raw materials and finished products are indicated by double lines, and intermediate raw materials are indicated by a single line. In addition, intermediate raw materials are indicated with the same symbols such as ■.

As is clear from the figure, the present invention uses titanium-containing raw materials, particularly relatively low-grade raw materials such as ilmenite and titanium slag, as well as silicic acid or alumina-containing raw materials, coal, quicklime, and coke as main raw materials, and uses sponge titanium as main raw materials. It can be seen that this is a system that obtains slag and surplus power. In many cases, there is a small or considerable surplus of electricity, which can be used, for example, to cast titanium sponge into ingots.1 Sometimes, the first step produces ferrosilicoaluminum, and the second step efficiently converts both aluminum and silicon into magnesium. If the system were to be converted (convert), there would be a slight power shortage, and input from outside the system might be required. The case shown in FIG. 3 is such an example.

However, it is clear that the energy source for operating the process of the invention is essentially provided by the coal supplied to the first step.

Next, in the first step, a reaction product gas containing a large amount of carbon monoxide is produced, so part of it is used as fuel within the system, and most of it is combusted to generate steam, and the boiler power generation equipment 16 generates electricity. The obtained electric power is used in various parts of the system, but in particular, it is used as the power to generate oxygen and is used in the first stage shaft furnace itself.

The only by-product generated at each stage is magnesium production slag, and the present invention is characterized by the fact that the four steps are closely related and the intermediate products are used as raw materials.

In order to verify each step of this concept, we conducted experiments for each step. The results will be explained for each step as an example.

First step Example 1. Production of ferrosilicoaluminum using iron as a solvent 2.9 parts of coal powder is mixed with 1 part of kaolin powder, 0.2 parts of asphalt tag is added and kneaded, and the mixture is made into briquettes using a briquette machine. This is put into a coking shaft furnace, and combustion gas is sent in from the bottom to dry distill it and make coke briquettes. ),,, this coked briquette has an inner diameter of 0.
8mφ, 4.5m height shaft furnace, 425 kgA
73.2 kg of iron and quicklime containing approximately 15% silicon generated in the second process.
kg/11, and pure oxygen from the lower part of the furnace is 200
It was blown through the tuyere at a rate of Nm'/110. From the furnace 0088 CH, N26%, N23%, Co23%+
7) Approximately 350°c No discharge, x, Kao, J: So50
It occurs at a rate of oNmz. Si:1 from the bottom of the furnace
0.6%, A121.4%, Fe48.0% molten metal 130kg/h, Ca
75 kg/h of slag consisting of approximately 38% O, 340% A1, and 220% 5i is discharged.

First step example 2. Coal powder 0.62, asphalt 0.08 as a caking agent, and a small amount of polyvinyl alcohol were added to silica powder 1 and kneaded to form tablets of 50 mm in size. The coal in the outer layer is about 138 to 1 silica powder.
becomes. This tablet was dry distilled in a coke oven in the same manner as in Example 1 to obtain a coked tablet. This tablet was added at a rate of 425 kg/h, and coke was added at a rate of 5 kg/h.
2kg/h (7) 1. Pure oxygen is supplied to the shaft furnace mentioned above at a rate of 2kg/h (7), and 20ONm of pure oxygen is supplied from the tuyeres at the bottom of the furnace for 7h.
Supply in proportion. Gas at approximately 330°C was generated from the top of the furnace, but all of this was collected and the liquid components were measured. C
O'88%.

Exhaust gas having a composition of about 26% N, 23% N, and 23% CO is generated at a rate of about 600 Nnn3/h.

670 kg/h of a tin-silicon alloy containing 10.6% silicon flows out from the lower part of the furnace at 1700°C. 670 kg of molten metal is taken out from the tap in the lower part of the furnace every hour and placed in a cylindrical refractory container where it is gradually cooled and stirred with refractory blades. When kept at 800°C for a long time, silicon solidifies and floats. . When the silicon is separated and stirred in molten zinc at 600°C, the adhering tin is removed in g and 66.5 kg of silicon is obtained.

Second process example 1. A refractory lining is placed inside a vacuum vessel made of a steel plate, a graphite crucible is placed inside the vessel, and resistance heating is performed between the vessel and the graphite crucible.

The container is made airtight and has a water-cooled condensation chamber from the top to the side, the end of which is connected to an ejector for vacuum suction. The capacity of the resistive heating source is 100J (VA).

235 in the crucible. Add kg of magnesium and 165 kg of quicklime. After feeding 260 kg of the molten metal from the first step into the crucible together with about 50 kg of slag that had flowed out at the same time, the chamber was made airtight, evacuated, and electrically heated.

The pressure in the vacuum chamber was 5 to 15 mm I-(, ji+, and the temperature of the slag and alloy bath was around 1500'C. After approximately 9 hours of treatment, the degree of vacuum increased, so heating was stopped and the slag and metal bath were discharged. Then, the magnesium accumulated in the condensation chamber was collected and weighed and analyzed. 129 kg of magnesium was obtained with a purity of 998 or higher.Residual metals were 5.
I16.1%, A10.6%, the balance is iron, 150kg
It is. This is cast into a plate shape, crushed and returned to the first step. The power consumption is estimated to be about 6,400 kwh per magnesium.

Second process example 2. Silicon 9 obtained in first step Example 1
．． 2 kg and quicklime 43 and 9. Magnesia 22.1ky
It is crushed and kneaded to make briquette. This is 0.28mφ×3
The sample was placed in a high-alloy retort with a cooling device attached to the 5th head of the tube, and the retort was placed in a fuel-fired heating furnace and heated to 1150°C. By suctioning from the head with a vacuum pump, magnesium is deposited in the cooling section. As in Example 1, about 1
After 2 hours, the treatment was stopped due to an increase in the degree of vacuum, and the precipitated magnesium and the residue in the retort were scraped out, weighed, and analyzed. Obtained 12 kg of magnesium, purity 9
It was more than 9.9 inches. The residue weighs 61.5 kg and consists mainly of dicalcium silicate.

Third process example.

12 kg of concentrated sulfuric acid are added to 10 kg of ilmenite concentrate containing 1% Ti0251 and decomposed at 100°C. Separate the insoluble materials, dilute to 4.5 mol/ml of sulfate ions, cool to -5°C in a cooler, separate the resulting iron sulfate crystals and chloride power! When 73.5 kli is dissolved and 9.3 kg of hydrochloric acid gas is passed through the solution while cooling, potassium chloride titanate is precipitated. After separation using a centrifuge, it is washed with hydrochloric acid and dried in a dry hydrogen chloride gas at a temperature below 200°C to reduce the moisture content to below 1 liter. Next, the potassium chloride titanate crystals were
When decomposed at 00-500°C, titanium tetrachloride is released dropwise.

This is condensed and passed through a rectifier to produce high-purity titanium tetrachloride 7.
Get kg. The titanium oxide produced as a by-product during thermal decomposition is returned to the sulfuric acid solution.

The magnesium obtained in the second step is placed in an iron container and dissolved, and after vacuum treatment is performed, high purity titanium tetrachloride is added dropwise to obtain titanium sponge. At this time, magnesium chloride is produced as a by-product. The titanium sponge is heated to 1000°C in a vacuum chamber to volatilize the adhering magnesium chloride.

Estimating from the above processing experiments, if this third step is carried out on a large scale, in order to produce 1 ton of titanium sponge, 3.3 t of ilmenite concentrate, 3.8 t of concentrated sulfuric acid, 3. It takes Ot. Note that small amounts of raw materials and by-products are omitted.

The obtained titanium sponge has sufficient toughness when using the magnesium obtained in Example 2 of the second step,
Although it fully satisfies JIS standard type 1 (JIS H2151), when magnesium obtained in Example 1 is used, it is inferior in terms of N material, and many products equivalent to type 2 are produced.

Note that the hydrogen chloride gas obtained in the fourth step contains some water, but this amount can be controlled by adjusting the solution concentration in the previous step.

Fourth step, steam decomposition of magnesium chloride From the third step, molten magnesium chloride and sublimated magnesium chloride are obtained. After cooling, this is pulverized in dry nitrogen gas and stored in a hot spring. The above-mentioned magnesium chloride is charged into the upper part of an electrically heated multi-stage fluidized bed lined with quartz glass and silica stone, while pure oxygen gas is blown from below. High-temperature steam is blown into a furnace that processes 25 kg of magnesium chloride at a rate of 9.24 mm/cm, and the temperature is kept at 90° C. by resistance heating to thermally decompose it, resulting in purity of 98%.
% magnesium oxide 1o. 5kg/h and I (2022
,2% wo”@; tr, HCl+H20 scum 15.l
Nm3/l is obtained. The electric power required to regenerate one ton of magnesium oxide using this method is estimated to be 8' □ okwh, assuming that heat is efficiently recovered from the generated HCl+H20. I]Cl+I420 gas is appropriately treated and returned to the third step, and magnesium oxide is returned to the second step.

As described above, the experimental examples of each of the four steps show that the present invention can be completed as a whole by using or applying the products of the previous step. Based on this, the present invention will be further explained in detail with reference to FIG. 2, which is a detailed view of FIGS.

The first step in FIG. 2 is a process in which silica-containing and alumina-containing minerals are charged into the shaft furnace 27 together with carbon-based fuel, and a molten alloy of metal such as iron and carbon is taken out. aluminum,
Since silicon is an element that is extremely difficult to reduce, reduction in a shaft furnace is not easy. Therefore, it is particularly recommended to use the means shown in the figures. That is, alumina-containing minerals and silicate-containing minerals are crushed by a crusher 22, kneaded by a crusher 23 together with crushed coal powder by a kneader 24, further made into briquettes by a briquette machine 25, and then made into coke by a roof tile or a coke furnace 26. and charged into the shaft furnace 27.

This is to ensure that the reduced mineral and carbon come into close contact. Second, the combustion support gas sent to the shaft furnace to burn the coke is a room temperature gas that generally contains 50 g or more of oxygen, especially if it is supplied from an oxygen generator.
A gas containing 0% or more of 02 is preferred. Usually, as in the embodiment, pure oxygen supplied from a cryogenic separation type oxygen generator 30 or 90% or more oxygen is used. When the oxygen concentration decreases, the amount of coke used increases and the furnace top gas temperature increases. Al in the alloy obtained in this way,
The concentration of Si is usually 40 parts or less on an atomic scale.

When the above-mentioned briquettes are not carried out, the atomic weight is barely 25 cm. If the concentration of Al+8i is low, the yield of the next step of manufacturing magnesium will decrease.

If an alloy metal such as iron is added as a metal, it may be supplied to the furnace in an appropriate size, and for example, the metal after the second step can be recycled.

When adding ore, the ore may be crushed and sized to an appropriate size and then fed to a shaft furnace, or it may be crushed and used as a component in the briquette. In this case, the material is mainly limited to iron, and iron or low-grade ferrosilicon can be produced as a by-product.

Three possible components of the alloy are S+-based, Al-based, and Al+Si. When the material is mainly Si, it is preferable to use silica stone as a raw material and to use Si or an alloy with Fe or Cu.

When A7 is the main material, a high alumina raw material such as bauxite is used, and an alloy with Fe or Cu is preferable. Alloys containing both AI and Si are common, and in this case also Fe or Cu
An alloy with is preferred. This is because minerals containing both alumina and silicic acid are abundant and easy to obtain, such as clay, Rouseki, and sillimanite. In the shaft furnace, lime is added as needed to create slag.

The two examples are representative examples, Example 1 is A7 and S
Example 2 is an example of manufacturing an iron alloy consisting of i, and Example 2 is an example of concentrating silicon using a custom-made tin alloy and applying it to the next process.

In either example, CO-rich gas is generated from the top of the shaft furnace, so in large plants this is burned in the boiler 28 and the resulting steam is used to operate the generator 29 to recover electricity. It can cover most of the power required for the entire process up to titanium sponge.

Since the gas from this shaft furnace has a high CO line purity, it is more advantageous to use it as a chemical industrial raw material than as a fuel. In that case, appropriate fuel or electric power would be supplied from elsewhere, but this is a complete modification of the present invention and is included in the technical idea of the present invention. In any case, the amount of heat produced by the shaft furnace and coke oven in the first step is large enough to supply almost all the power for the entire system.

The second step is to manufacture magnesium using silicon or an alloy of aluminum and iron, and this step alone is known. For example, the working example is based on what is known as the so-called magnesium method, and the working example 2 is based on what is known as the so-called vision method. Partially, combinations that take advantage of the characteristics and advantages of the first step are shown. For example, in Example 1, the alloy obtained in the first step is supplied in a molten state, so magnesium is produced with extremely high thermal efficiency (low power consumption)1, and in Example 2, pure silicon is used. .

In the second step Example 1, several deformation treatments can be considered for metals such as iron. The first is when A, which has high activity in magnesium production, is mainly used, leaving silicon and using it as low-grade ferrosilicon.
In both cases, most of the metal is used to obtain metal, and either it is used for another purpose or it is returned to the first process. Depending on the modification of these methods, the composition of the slag produced as a by-product will change, its uses will vary, and the power shortages and surpluses of the entire system will also change. 31 is a magnesium manufacturing device.

The third step is a method known by some as the Shosnoger method. 32 is a dissolution tank, and 33 is a filter.

Impurities are crystallized in a cooler 34, potassium chloride and hydrochloric acid are added in an absorber 35, and the crystallized potassium chloride titanate crystals are collected in a centrifuge 36. The crystals were washed at 37, dried in a hydrochloric acid gas atmosphere at 38, decomposed at about 500°C at 39,
40 powder distillation tower to obtain pure vinegar titanium tetrachloride. 41 is a humidifier for hydrochloric acid gas, the magnesium obtained in the second step is preheated and degassed in 42, 43 is a reduction tank, and 44 is a vacuum distiller, which removes magnesium chloride from 43.44 to obtain titanium sponge.

The obtained magnesium chloride is decomposed with steam in a thermal decomposition furnace 45 to obtain magnesia. Hydrochloric acid gas containing steam is cooled in a heat exchanger 46 and sent to the third step.

Although this third step method has not been commercialized at present, when it is combined with the fourth step in the present invention, it is possible to efficiently process the substances of the entire system in a closed circuit. Unlike the currently widely used Kroll method, which uses chlorine, this method uses hydrogen chloride, and low-grade titanium ore can be used. This point effectively combines the fourth step and the second step/step.

The fourth step is a step in which the magnesium chloride generated in the third step is thermally decomposed using steam or the like, without using conventional electrolytic methods. As the pyrolysis furnace, a multistage fluidized bed as in the example is preferable, and heating is preferably performed to around 900°C. Lower temperatures can also be used in conjunction with subsequent moisture removal. The heating power source is corrosive gas, so electric heating is preferable since there is plenty of room in the system. The steam is sent after exchanging heat with the generated gas.

Although it depends on the processing temperature, 11C1 at 900℃ as in the example
, -78%!・The rest is water vapor. The generated gas is cooled and used in the third step to produce potassium titanate chloride.

The fourth step is basically a step of thermally decomposing magnesium chloride to regenerate hydrochloric acid and magnesia.

Therefore, decomposition by steam as in the actual flow is preferable, but other means are also included in this scope as methods for achieving the final purpose. For example, it is conceivable to combust fuel containing a large amount of hydrogen with air or oxygen, and to thermally decompose magnesium chloride using the exhaust gas. It is easy to use electric heat as the heat source in the fourth step as in the embodiment. From the original idea, it is desirable not to consume as much power as possible, but since the power is extremely small compared to the power of electrolysis, there is no problem in achieving the final objective of the present invention.

The substances circulating within the system are hydrochloric acid (■), magnesia (■), iron, etc. (■), magnesium chloride (■), and magnesium (■) in Figure 2. Among these, when iron is used, there is no problem as it increases little by little during use due to the ash in the coke, etc., but other intermediate materials are consumed by 5 to 25% each time as a yield loss during circulation. To replenish this, each must be replenished, but in general, the consumption of hydrochloric acid is large, so it is better to replenish hydrochloric acid and magnesia or magnesium chloride as an inexpensive combination. It is also conceivable that as an elaborate combination, common salt is supplied and reacted with the waste sulfuric acid produced in the third step to replenish hydrochloric acid, and various modifications are possible.

Although the embodiments of the present method are clear from the above description, the novelty of the present invention lies in the combination of the first to fourth steps. In other words, magnesium is primarily thermally produced from aluminum or silicon alloy produced with high thermal efficiency in the shaft furnace in the first step, and this magnesium is used to reduce titanium tetrachloride, thereby indirectly utilizing the high thermal efficiency of the shaft furnace. The idea is that the magnesium chloride produced as a by-product in the fourth step is thermally decomposed with steam in the third step, and the resulting hydrochloric acid gas is returned to the fourth step and magnesia is used in the second step. This results in complete utilization of materials in a closed circuit and high thermal efficiency.

It is of great significance that the present invention has made the energy consumption of the entire system extremely small. This is the greatest advantage of wood combination1. To explain this, if a 10,000 t annual titanium production facility planned based on the example below is planned using the flow sheet shown in Figure 2, titanium 1 indicates the heat flow per unit, and this is finally converted into the amount of coal used. However, the lower calorific value of coal is assumed to be 75001/kg, and the power generation efficiency is assumed to be 35 cm.

Further, in the case of the present invention, the first and second steps were shown for Example 2.

The results are shown in Figures 3 and 4. Figure 3 shows the case of this method. Coke is also used in the shaft furnace, and the dry surplus heat generated during coke production is generated within the system and used for power generation. Estimating in this manner, this method requires the use of 5''020 kg of coal to produce 1 ton of titanium sponge, but this results in a power shortage of 1110 kWh.

FIG. 4 shows the case of titanium production by the conventional method.

In this case, the input is 36,000 kWh (7) electricity and 560 kg of coke. If we consider this coke in the same way as above and reduce it to coal usage, we get 1
This means that by producing 1 ton of titanium using 2,526 kli' of coal, a surplus of electricity of 1,163 kWh is generated.

w h There is a power difference of more than 2270 kg between the two, but if this is calculated using the above assumptions, it is 745 kg in coal equivalent.
corresponds to Calculating backwards, the present method requires 5,384 kg of coal, and the conventional method requires 12,145 kg of coal, whereas the present method requires less than half that amount, and the superiority of the present method is clear.

Although there is a question as to whether such a comparison is appropriate, it can be said to be reasonable considering that the current electricity supply in Japan and other major industrialized countries is mainly based on thermal power. Moreover, this conclusion hardly changes even if the calorific value of coal, power generation efficiency, etc. are slightly varied within the practical range. Furthermore, even if the first and second steps are performed in accordance with Example 1, or if the various basic units are slightly changed, this conclusion hardly changes.

Comparing Figure 3 and Figure 4, we can see that in the conventional method, power enters the main line and the system does not operate without a huge amount of power, but in the method of the present invention, power is generated as a by-product, and it is necessary to operate the auxiliary equipment. In other words, although the characteristics of the shaft furnace were indirectly utilized, the flow shown in Figure 3 clearly shows that the entire process was configured as a thermal reduction method.

This kind of idea is unprecedented for a titanium manufacturing method.

In detail, issues such as disposal of residual ash associated with coal-fired power generation are not an issue at all under this law. Unlike ash from coal-fired power plants, this method discharges ash in a state that is easy to dispose of as slag from shaft furnaces.

Furthermore, this method has the advantage of directly linking inexpensive ores such as ilmenite to titanium production. In this case, approximately 2 tons of silica stone and approximately 3 tons of quicklime are used for every 1 portion of titanium. However, these are relatively easy to obtain at low cost, and the slab residue generated from them can be used 100% as a raw material for fertilizer cement, so their drawbacks are fully covered. Although an additional 3.76% of sulfuric acid is required, this is more than compensated for by the advantage of using low-grade ore. Further, in this method, a considerable amount of coal must be used as caking coal, and although it is slightly more expensive than general fuel coal, the advantages of the present invention are only slightly impaired.

As described above, the present invention produces titanium by producing aluminum and silicon alloys by utilizing the high thermal efficiency that is a feature of a shaft furnace, and by utilizing the reactivity of the reduced aluminum-silicon. It has the idea of a new combination that has never been seen before.

Although there are known parts of the four steps that make up this, it is due to the significant advantages of their combination that when constructed as a whole, significant energy and resource savings can be achieved. Furthermore, it is clear from FIG. 3 that the energy source for operating the entire system in this method is supplied from the fuel such as coal or coke that enters the first step.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Figure 1 is a conceptual diagram showing the entire system of the method of the present invention, Figure 2 is a flow sheet showing its details, Figure 3 is an explanatory diagram showing the heat balance in the method of the present invention, and Figure 4 is the thermal energy in the conventional method. It is an explanatory diagram showing balance. Agent: Patent attorney Masamitsu Akizawa and 2 others

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) At least one of a silicic acid-containing raw material and an alumina-containing raw material, a carbonaceous fuel such as coke and a reducing agent, and iron,
A metal, compound, ore of at least one of nickel, copper, manganese, and tin is charged into a shaft and a furnace, and reduced at high temperature with an oxygen-enriched combustion supporting gas, and at least one of aluminum and silicon is reduced. The first step is to produce an alloy consisting of at least one of the five metal elements, and to generate electricity by recovering the top gas in the shaft furnace as fuel, or by burning it and recovering the gas as steam. , a second step of thermally reducing the magnesium by keeping the alloy as it is or concentrating it and holding it together with lime and magnesia at a high temperature to elute the magnesium; and dissolving the titania-containing raw material with sulfuric acid, etc. Then, add hydrochloric acid and potassium chloride to obtain pure potassium titanate chloride, which is thermally decomposed and subjected to the necessary purification to obtain pure titanium titanium chloride.
This and the third step of reducing with the aforementioned magnesium to obtain titanium sponge and magnesium chloride, and thermally decomposing magnesium chloride using steam etc. to generate magnesia and hydrochloric acid, which are returned to each of the above steps. The fourth step is thus a method for producing metallic titanium using a titania-containing raw material, a carbonaceous fuel, and a silicic acid- or alumina-containing raw material as main raw materials, and the heat source necessary in the step is substantially supplied to the first step. , a resource-saving and energy-saving titanium production method characterized by using carbonaceous fuel.