The composition of the material which can be transformed into a metallic form stable by reduction by hydrogen, and a method and apparatus for carrying out this transformation

摘要

PICT:1099464/C6-C7/1 A composition convertible to a stable metallic form by hydrogen reduction at less than the melting temperature of the metal comprises a mixture of a compound of iron, cobalt or nickel with at least 20% by weight of the metal content in the form of a chloride of the metal. If the metal is iron, a trace amount of an element e.g. Ca, S, Na, or V, may be added to maintain the structural integrity of the reduced metallic mass. Prior to reduction, the composition may be compacted to form pellets using the chloride as a binder. The composition may be passed in countercurrent to the hydrogen for reduction (see Fig. 1), through a zone of dehydration with spent hydrogen e.g. tower 19, a zone of partial reduction with partially spent hydrogen and then a zone of final reduction with fresh, hot hydrogen supplied at 17. The apparatus comprises dehydration tower (19), a perforate conveyer (11), passing through the reduction zones and means for introduction of hydrogen (17), direction thereof into dehydration tower (42) and removal (20), regeneration (21) and heating (22) thereof. The spent hydrogen is regenerated by absorbing the HCl content thereof in a metal chloride solution, thereby precipitating metal chloride crystals.ALSO:PICT:1099464/C1/1 A composition convertible to a stable metallic form by hydrogen reduction at less than the melting temperature of the metal comprises a mixture of a compound of iron, cobalt or nickel with at least 20% by wt. of the metal content in the form of a chloride of the metal. If the metal is iron, a trace amount of an element, e.g. Ca, S, Na or V, may be added to maintain the structural integrity of the reduced metallic mass. Prior to reduction, the composition may be compacted to form pellets using the chloride as a binder. The composition may be passed in countercurrent to the hydrogen for reduction (see Fig. 1) through a zone of dehydration with spent hydrogen, e.g. tower 19, a zone of partial reduction with partially-spent hydrogen and then a zone of final reduction with fresh, hot hydrogen, supplied at 17. The apparatus comprises dehydration tower 19, a perforate conveyer, 11, passing through the reduction zones and means for introduction of hydrogen (17), direction thereof into dehydration tower (42) and removal (20), regeneration (21) and heating (22) thereof. The spent hydrogen is regenerated by absorbing the HCl content thereof in a metal chloride solution, precipitating metal chloride crystals.