Synthetic rutile for paints industry is conventionally produced by a combined smelting and leaching process. Smelting process is an energy intensive step and represents economic burden in view of the increasing energy costs. Egyptian ilmenite ore containing 40 percent TiO_2 and 38 percent total Fe was thus directly leached with sulphuric acid to produce eventually synthetic rutile. The process involves digestion of the ore with sulphuric acid whereby both TiO_2 and Fe are dissolved. The solution was then treated with iron powder to convert Fe~(3+) to Fe~(2+) to avoid co-precipitation of iron during the hydrolysis step. After solid/liquid separation and clarification, Fe was crystallized as ferrous sulphate hydrate by chilling. The titanium pregnant liquor was concentrated by evaporation and then hydrolyzed to precipitate hydrated titanium dioxide which was then calcined to produce synthetic rutile containing 98.6 TiO_2 and 0.58 percent Fe_2O_3. The optimum conditions of all the processing stages were determined.
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