Kinetic Studies on Gas-Based Reduction of Vanadium Titano-Magnetite Pellet

Abstract

Vanadium titano-magnetite (VTM) is a significant resource in China—analysis shows that China possesses approximately 10 billion tons of VTM. In this study, we characterize VTM’s isothermal reduction mechanisms in the mixture of H2, CO, and N2 where the variables considered include reduction time, reduction temperature, gas composition, and pellet size. The kinetics of the reduction process were studied following a shrinking core model. The results indicate that the reduction degree of oxidized VTM pellets increases with increases of reduction time and reduction temperature but decreases with increasing pellet size. Moreover, we found that an increase of H2/(H2 + CO) ratio induced an increase of the reduction degree. We discuss the transformation of main Ti-bearing mineral phases, and we consider the most probable reaction mechanism. For the entire reduction process, the kinetic results confirm the existence of an early and later stages that are controlled by interface chemical reaction and diffusion, respectively. Furthermore, the results show that the diffusion-control step can be observably shortened via decreased pellet size because a thinner product layer is formed during the reduction process. Our study thus provides a valuable technical basis for industrial applications of VTM.