Study of Thermal Behavior in a Kroll Reactor for the Optimization of Ti Sponge Production

Abstract:

The titanium reduction from titanium tetrachloride (TiCl4) by molten magnesium pool, called the Kroll process, is regarded as a well-known process for the commercial-scale production of titanium sponge. Purified titanium tetrachloride vapor reduced by magnesium, forms sponge titanium with generating excessive heal. The heal transfer phenomena in a Kroll reactor should be thoroughly understood for productivity and quality enhancement. In this work, a computational modeling method to describe the thermal behavior in the TiCl4 reduction reactor was investigated and validated with the measured temperature distribution in a 500kg titanium sponge-capacity pilot-scale reactor in terms of various reduction ratios. The approach model for heat flow phenomenon in a reduction reactor could be utilized as a tool to predict the influence of operating process parameters on the optimization of Kroll process.

• Periodical: Materials Science Forum (Volumes 654-656)
• Pages: 839-842
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/MSF.654-656.839
• Online since: June 2010
• Authors: Hyun Na Bae, Seon Hyo Kim, Go Gi Lee, Sung Koo Jo, Jae Young Jung
• Keywords: Computational Modeling, Kroll, Thermal Behavior, TiCl₄, Titanium

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