Study on the Enhancement of Iron Removal in the Becher Aeration by a Novel Tubular Reactor

An aeration step of the Becher process was carried out in a novel tubular reactor to study the effect of the tubular reactor on the removal of metallic iron. In the tubular reactor, the influence of oxygen flow rate and stirring rate on the removal of metallic iron in reduced ilmenite (RI) were studied and compared with the kettle reactor. The results show that when the reaction system is 2% (w/v) ammonium chloride solution, the optimal condition is that 97% of metallic iron (MFe) can be removed from RI in 3 h. At the same time, the synthetic rutile (SR) obtained in the tubular reactor has less iron oxide precipitated inside its particles. The grade of TiO2 can reach 87%.