Purification of titanium tetrachloride from titania slag chlorination

Purification of titanium tetrachloride (TiCl4) is an important step in the titanium process. After chlorination, impurities in the gained crude TiCl4 such as V, Al, Fe, Si, etc. were removed by distillation technique following the chemical pre-treatment method. Simple distillation, distillation with bubbled N-2 and distillation in presence of copper metal were tested. Effect of copper metal, diethyl malonate and acetylacetone on the impurities removal was evaluated. Obtained results showed that the chemical pre-treatment method exhibited a higher efficiency for TiCl4 purification than the distillation method. Acetylacetone was shown to be a suitable agent for impurities removal, resulting low content of V, Zr, Al, Fe and Si in the final purified TiCl4 product. Crude TiCl4 purification in distillation tower of a pilot scale was successfully operated.