Recovery Ti02 by Leaching Process of Carbothermic Reduced Kalimantan Ilmenite

摘要

Ilmenite naturally occurred in iron titanate (FeTiO_3) minerals. The separation of natural ilmenite into TiO_2 and Fe_2O_3 need to be explored to gain the high purity separation product. A new combination method named of carbothermic reduction, acidic-leaching and complexation by EDTA were proposed for separation TiO_2 from Ilmenite. Roasting of ilmenite was carried out at 950 °C for 1 h by the addition of activated carbon with mass ratio of ilmenite : activated carbon= 4:3. The carbothermic reduction was carried out to yield a high separation of initial content of ilmenite that will be easily to dissolve within hydrochloric acid solution in leaching process. The composition of ilmenite observed by X-Ray Fluoresences (XRF) changed after the carbothermic reduction process and the dominant content is TiO_2 (57.56%). X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) of roasted ilmenite composed of decomposed product of ilmenite i.e. hematite (Fe_2O_3), TiO_2 anatase, TiO_2 rutile, and inorganic salt. The leaching of the roasted ilmenite has been done by sulphuric acid solution (6 M) to gain the titanyl sulphate solution. Separation of iron impurities of TiO_2 gel from titanyl sulphate (TiOSO_4) solution was conducted by complexation method using EDTA as a complexation agent. The characteristic of TiO_2 obtained using XRD showed that TiO_2 is anatase type and the percentage of TiO_2 using XRF showed that TiO_2 content of 86,03%.