Scarring analysis and numerical simulation of TiCl4 oxidation reactor in chloride process of titanium dioxide

TiCl4 oxidation reactor is the key equipment in the chloride process of TiO2, while the scarring inside the reactor significantly affects its long-period and consistent operation. In this study, the scarring reason in the industrial reactor was firstly investigated by composition analysis, and then, by the CFD simulation of the internal flow and wall temperature distribution, which is employed in the ANSYS-Fluent software package under the circumstance of actual operating conditions. The simulation results show that the reactor wall temperature, internal flow field and other factors have a very important influence on the scarring of the reactor. The wall temperature in the hot-oxygen zone should be higher than 770℃ and that in the TiCl4 feeding ring should be higher than 178℃, respectively, for preventing the additives of KCl and AlCl3 depositing on the inner wall of the reactor. In order to avoid the newly generated TiO2to aggregate on the inner wall of the reaction zone, vortexes should be eliminated or reduced for the newly generated TiO2with high-activity to timely pass through the reaction zone. © 2023 Chemical Industry Press. All rights reserved.