Continuous titanium process
OwnerRobert K. Jordaninventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A cyclic, ideally continuous, process for producing titanium which employs the reduction of titanium fluorides by potassium or sodium, or mixtures thereof, to result in titanium particles in molten alkali metal fluoride, which after separation said alkali metal fluoride is combined with a molten ferrous metal to evolve the alkali metal to be recycled from alkali metal iron fluoride that is then combined with a titanium dioxide containing mineral, ideally ilmenite, to evolve titanium tetrafluoride which is recycled. The process may be employed to produce other metals, especially aluminum, silicon and zirconium.
Claims17
A process for the production of titanium comprising:
- combining a titanium fluoride and at least one of sodium and potassium to produce titanium and at least one of sodium and potassium fluorides;
- combining a molten ferrous metal and at least one of the alkali fluorides to evolve at least one alkali metal from an alkali iron fluoride, and
- combining alkali iron fluoride and a mineral comprising titanium dioxide and oxygen to evolve titanium tetrafluoride from alkali iron oxide.
A process for the production of silicon comprising,
- combining sodium or potassium and a silicon fluoride to produce metallic silicon and the corresponding alkali metal fluoride in a molten state,
- combining said molten alkali metal fluoride and a molten ferrous metal to produce the corresponding alkali metal and alkali metal iron fluoride, and
- combining said alkali metal iron fluoride and silicon dioxide to evolve silicon tetrafluoride.
A process for the production of metals whose fluorides are reducible by alkali metals comprising,
- combining a metal whose fluoride is reducible by sodium or potassium and at least one of sodium and potassium to result in a
- separate phase of the free metal in at least one of molten sodium fluoride and potassium fluoride,
- separating said free metal from said molten alkali fluorides,
- combining said molten alkali fluorides and molten iron to evolve at least one of sodium and potassium from alkali iron fluoride.
A process for the production of sodium or potassium comprising combining a molten ferrous metal and molten sodium or potassium fluoride to evolve gaseous sodium or potassium and recovering said potassium or sodium.
A process for the production of alkali iron fluorides and at least one of potassium and sodium comprising combining a molten ferrous metal and at least one of molten potassium fluoride and sodium fluoride to evolve at least one of potassium and sodium for an alkali iron fluoride and recovering said potassium or sodium.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.