Extraction of titanium resources from the titanium-containing waste slag: Thermodynamic analysis and experimental verification

Compared with the ilmenite ore, the titanium resources in vanadium titanomagnetite (VTM) have not been effectively recovered yet due to the relatively low grade of titanium oxides. Therefore, after the extraction process of Fe and V from VTM, a large amount of titania slag is currently discarded and landfilled, leading to the environment problems. For the purpose of addressing this problem, the titania slag that is formed after pre-reduction and melt separation of VTM is used as the titanium-containing raw materials in this work. Moreover, the aluminothermic reduction is adopted and the ferrotitanium alloy is chosen as the enrichment end-product of titanium resources. The effects of additive amounts of Al, FeO, and CaO on the reaction process and alloy quality are explored by the thermodynamic analysis. Furthermore, the ferrotitanium alloy that satisfies the standard requirements is successfully prepared and the grade is improved.