Preparation of TiC by carbothermal reduction in vacuum and acid leaching using blast furnace slag bearing titania

A combined process of carbothermal reduction in vacuum and acid leaching is proposed to produce TiC from titanium bearing blast furnace (BF) slag from Pan Steel in Panzhihua city in China. Thermodynamics calculation shows that TiC can be obtained in the appropriate temperature and pressure range. Moreover, the results of the experiment indicate that TiC can be prepared by the combined process. The optimized parameters include particle size of original slag ideally below 200 mesh, reduction temperature of 1400°C, pressure of 1~10 Pa and mass ratio of slag and reduction (carbon powder) of 100/38. The x value in TiC increases with increase of reduction degree while the maximum is 0.981. The final x is 0.957 in the pure TiC prepared by the combined process. Silicon and magnesium in the slag can be removed by evaporating, which makes silicon and titanium in the slag separate completely.