The plasma-assisted manufacture of zirconium metal powder from zirconium tetrachloride

The Kroll process is the traditional method of producing zirconium metal by reduction of zirconium tetrachloride with magnesium metal. This paper discusses the production of zirconium metal in a plasma reactor. Anhydrous low-hafnium ZrCl sub(4) and Mg metal were fed continuously to a 30 kW non-transfer plasma reactor at a rate of 0.31 kg.h super(-1). Due to losses in the system the recovery of crude product was 77.5%. After purification to remove unreacted feed material and MgCl sub(2) by leaching, >98% pure zirconium metal powder was obtained. The overall recovery of purified Zr was 74%. The conversion efficiency of the process was 95%.