Mathematical modeling of phase change electrodes and application to a novel titanium extraction process.

摘要

Titanium and its alloys have excellent engineering properties but their applications are limited because they are expensive and a good percentage of this cost results from the extraction process. The national agencies of many countries around the world have invested a lot of resources to develop a more cost-effective titanium extraction process. A result of one such research efforts is the Fray-Farthing-Chen (FFC) process in which pellets of titanium dioxide are made the cathode in an electrochemical cell with a graphite anode and an electrolyte of molten CaCl2 at 900°C. After electro-deoxidation, the pellets are reduced to titanium with oxygen in solid solution. From this short description, this one step process provides distinct advantages over the current process of extracting titanium known as the Kroll process that takes several days to complete.; For investigation of the FFC process theoretically, a coupled electrochemical and diffusion based model was set-up to simulate the linear sweep voltammograms that was developed by collaborators working on lab-scale experiments on the FCC process. Using this model, a parameter called "deltadc" (that is the product of diffusion coefficients of oxygen in the phases, Ti3O5 and Ti2O3 and the stoichiometric range of these phases) was determined. The results suggest a reaction of first-order in the concentration of oxygen in the solid phase.; For modeling the reaction of an individual sintered pellet of TiO 2 as it undergoes electro-deoxidation in a molten salt bath of CaCl 2, a similarity of this process with the operation of a lithium ion battery was exploited. Using the model, a number of parameters of physical importance, namely thickness of the sintered pellets, porosity of the pellets and the radius of the particles making up the pellets and the optimum values for the these parameters were proposed based on the simulation data. It is also shown that if the reduction is started with a pellet of partially reduced titanium dioxide (such as by reducing with hydrogen), one can avoid titanate formation. The work described in this dissertation will hopefully help in the development of a more cost-effective titanium extraction process.