Comparative Study on Energy Consumption and Yield by Various Thermal Plasma Routes for Production of Titania slag

Abstract

In this paper, pre-reduced ilmenite concentrate of Indian region was processed successfully by thermal plasma routes to produce high titania slag. Effects of various parameters like time, yield and energy consumption, on TiO2 and FeO content in the slag were studied. One of the main drawbacks of thermal plasma process is higher specific electrical power consumption, especially where power is costlier. So, the main focus is to reduce the energy consumption with better yield in various thermal plasma reactors. It is found that energy consumption decreases in respect to in-flight static bed plasma reactor. If the melting time kept within 2 min, the TiO2 content and iron recovery increased, whereas melting time exceeds 2 min, low yield has been observed. At optimum conditions, TiO2 content in the slag and the iron recovery are 84.5 and 80%, respectively. The phases before and after reduction, the sample were analyzed using X-ray diffraction.