Flow and Reaction Characteristic in a Stirred Reactor for Corrosion Process of Reduced Ilmenite

Abstract

The technology for producing artificial rutile by the reduction-rusting method has the advantages of high product quality and less slag. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method is used to simulate the solid-liquid suspension and gas-liquid dispersion characteristics in the stirred corrosion reactor. The results show that the maximum volume fraction difference of the solid phase in the reactor with an upward-lifting impeller is 0.02, and for the downforce type, it is 0.04. When the stirring speed is increased from 100 rpm to 150 rpm, the radial dispersion area of the gas phase is increased; after the six-inclined-blade disk turbine is selected as the lower impeller, the proportion of bubbles with a diameter less than 0.004 m in the reactor is increased from 26% to 45%. The content of metallic iron in the product of the corrosion reaction is 1.67% in the stirred reactor with a six-inclined-blade disk turbine as the lower impeller.

Keywords

• gas-liquid-solid multiphase flow
• stirred reactor
• reduced ilmenite
• corrosion process