The CSIRO is developing the TIRO™ process for the continuous direct production of titanium powder. The process comprises two stages. The first stage is a fluidised bed reactor (FBR) in which TiCl4 is reacted with magnesium powder to form solid magnesium chloride particles about 350 µm in diameter in which micron sized titanium particles are dispersed. The second stage is a continuous vacuum distillation operation where the titanium is separated from the magnesium chloride and sintered to form a friable “biscuit”. The biscuit comprises porous titanium spheres about 250 µm in diameter which can be liberated by very light grinding. The overall process has a throughput of 0.2 kg/h Ti, limited by the vacuum distillation unit and is being scaled up. The process has generated Ti powder with ≤0.25 wt% O and < 200 ppm Cl and meets CP2 specifications. Ring grinding the vacuum distilled product for short periods reduced the particle size, however longer grinding times caused agglomeration of the particles. Ring grinding in air resulted in a large increase in oxygen concentration
CFD and experimental studies on a circulating fluidised bed reactor for biomass gasification
