Process for the production of titanium and iron material

Claim 2

A process as defined in claim 1 wherein step (i) includes subjecting the saturated acid solution to a posItive gas pressure having a maximum of 60 p.s.i.g. while maintaining said solution at ambient temperature.

Claim 3

A process as defined in claim 1 wherein any mother liquor remaining at step (j) is separated into its individual constituents by sequential distillation, said individual constituents comprising hydrogen chloride gas, aqueous hydrochloric acid solution containing 20 percent to 40 percent HC1, a constant boiling point HC1-water mixture, and concentrated sulfuric acid, said individual constituents being suitable for recycling.

Claim 4

A process for the production of titanium tetrachloride and iron oxide from an ore material containing a mixture of titanium, iron and other materials comprising: a. subjecting said ore to an aqueous acidic leaching solution comprised of constituents selected from the group consisting of HC1 and H2SO4 and mixtures thereof, said leaching solution removing titanium and iron from said ore and separating the titanium and iron-containing solution from the remaining undissolved ore, b. reducing any ferric iron to ferrous iron in the acid solution by subjecting said titanium and iron-containing solution to a reducing agent, c. saturating the titanium and iron-containing solution with hydrogen chloride gas to precipitate the ferrous iron present in said solution as ferrous chloride thereby obtaining a solution that is essentially iron-free, d. collecting the precipitated ferrous chloride and converting said ferrous oxide to iron oxide, e. maintaining the saturation of the iron-free solution with additional hydrogen chloride and substantially simultaneously subjecting the iron-free solution to a positive gas pressure of at least one atmosphere gauge while adding alkali metal chloride to the solution to precipitate alkali metal chlorotitanate from said solution, f. collecting the precipitated alkali metal chlorotitanate and converting said chlorotitanate to titanium tetrachloride, and g. recovering the remaining constituents of the solution at step (e).

Claim 5

A process as defined in claim 5 wherein step (c) is carried out at a positive pressure of about 40 p.s.i.g. and said step (c) removes at least 95 percent of any iron in the titanium and iron-containing solution.

Claim 6

The process as defined in claim 6 wherein any iron collected at step (d) is substantially sulfate-free.

Claim 7

A process as defined in claim 5 wherein step (e) is conducted at a positive pressure in the range of a gauge pressure of 1 to 5 atmospheres.

Claim 8

A process as defined in claim 5 wherein the positive pressure utilized at step (e) is attained by the use of pressurized hydrogen chloride gas.

Claim 9

A process as defined in claim 5 wherein step (f) includes subjecting the alkali metal chlorotitanate to a stream of dry hydrogen chloride gas to desiccate the alkali metal chlorotitanate to a final moisture content of less than 1 percent and substantially simultaneously heating said alkali metal chlorotitanate to a temperature to the range of 300* C. to 700* C. thereby decomposing the alkali metal chlorotitanate to titanium tetrachloride.

Claim 10

A process as defined in claim 5 wherein step (g) includes distilling the recovered solution to separate hydrogen chloride gas and recycle such gas to steps (c) and (e), separate hydrochloric acid containing 20 percent to 40 percent by weight of HC1 and recycling such acid to step (a), separate a constant boiling HC1-water mixture and recycle such mixture to step (a), and recycle any remaining solution to (a).