Carbothermic Reduction of Titanium-Bearing Blast Furnace Slag

Abstract

The carbothermic reduction experiments were carried out for titanium-bearing blast furnace slag in Panzhihua Iron and Steel Company in argon atmosphere at high temperatures. The effects of reduction temperature, isothermal treatment time and carbon content on the formation of TiC were studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscope (SEM). The XRD pattern results showed that MgAl2O4 phase disappeared and the main phase of the reduced sample was TiC when the reduction temperature was higher than 1,773 K. The SEM pictures showed that the reduction rate of the titanium-bearing blast furnace slag could be increased by enhancing the temperature and the C content (carbon ratio ≤1.0). Furthermore, it was also found that TiC had the tendency of concentrating around the iron. The effects of additives such as Fe and CaCl2 on the formation of TiC were also studied in the present study.

Keywords

• titanium-bearing blast furnace slag
• carbothermic reduction
• titanium carbide