Processing routes to produce titanium from Tio2

The only commercial process to produce titanium metal is the metallothermic reduction of TiCl4 by sodium (Hunter) and magnesium (Kroll). If titanium could be produced from the ore/TiO2 a saving for producing TiCl4 and its special storage and handling would at least be achieved as well as the electrolytic requirement of producing the Na or Mg reductant. An approach is to carbothermically reduce TiO2 to a lower oxide which provides several possible routes for a second electrolytic reduction step to produce titanium metal. Several potential electrolytic reduction routes for producing titanium from a carbothermic produced suboxide will be discussed with experimental results provided for each process route.