Carbothermic Reduction of Vanadium Titanomagnetite by Microwave Irradiation and Smelting Behavior

摘要

The recovery rate of the titanium is much low in the current process of the vanadium titanomagnetite resource in Panzhihua, China. The carbothermic reduction process in the microwave filed was proposed because the problem caused by Ti(C,N) should be avoid and the TiO_2 content in the slag should increase. The reduction behavior of the ore in microwave and the distribution of the elements during the smelting process were studied. The heating rate of the vanadium titanomagnetite in the microwave field can be divided into three stages: the very fast heating period in initial 25 minutes in which no apparent reduction happens, the slow heating period in which the solid reduction of the magnetite decreases the heating rate, another fast heating period in which the reduction of ilmenite happens. About 60% of iron from 1 kg of the ore and carbonaceous materials was obtained by an energy supply of 10 kW by microwave irradiation in 120 min. The recovery ratios of Fe, V and Si increase with increasing the reduction temperature. The addition of the CaO can increase the recovery ratio of Fe and V, but decrease the recovery ratio of Si.