Carbothermic Reduction of Iron Oxide Waste Generated During the Processing of Ilmenite

In India, ilmenite is considered as a major mineral reserve for the extraction of titanium. During the processing of ilmenite to produce titanium dioxide, huge amount of iron oxide is generated and dumped as waste. According to an approximation, 0.7 ton of iron oxide waste is generated for one ton of synthetic rutile production. This waste iron oxide has great potential to be utilized as resource of iron. Therefore, the present work deals with the carbothermic reduction studies of iron oxide waste generated during the ilmenite processing. The spent graphite electrode of electric arc furnace was used as reductant for the reduction studies. Different parameters such as reduction temperature, residence time and weight ratio of iron oxide/reductant were investigated. Reduction studies were carried out by varying the residence time at 15, 30, 60 and 120 min. With an increase in reduction temperature and residence time, percent reduction was found to be increased. Maximum reduction value of 95% was obtained at optimized reduction condition. After reduction, fine powder of metallic iron was obtained, which was characterized by XRD and particle size analyzer. The generated fine powder of metallic iron had direct application and high market value