Hydrometallurgical process for recovering titanium from titanium-bearing blast furnace slag in Panzhihua Steel Plant

High purity TiO₂-containing product is prepared by acid leaching method. However, the pickle liquor recycling remains a difficult problem, which can be avoided by using the alkaline leaching method, but this process is complex and the recovering cost of sodium salt is a bit high. The acid-alkali method can change the Ti-bearing blast-furnace slag into rich-titanium material theoretically, while this process is complex too, which needs further study and perfection. A variety of pyrometallurgy technologies to recover titanium from titanium bearing blast furnace slag are comprehensively reviewed and a comparative analysis is made from aspect of technological, economic and environmental protection. It is pointed out that efficient and comprehensive utilization of titanium bearing blast furnace slag requires combining pyrometallurgy with hydro metallurgical process, as well as some external field metallurgy technology.