Impurity removal from titanium oxycarbide

Abstract

A process to remove impurities from titanium oxycarbide–the feedstock used to make titanium via the MER electrochemical process–from impure oxycarbide produced from low-grade feedstocks such as ilmenite is described. Titanium oxycarbide produced by carbothermal reduction from a natural ilmenite concentrate will contain many metallic impurities, such as iron, manganese, and silicon. If these impurities are not removed, then these metallic impurities will contaminate the titanium product. The MER process can be modified into a two-step process to first remove the contaminating metallic impurities before titanium production begins. A simplified system has been used to test this iron removal method, and the titanium oxycarbide produced by this first electrochemical step has been characterized to determine its impurity content.