Kinetic study on carbothermic reduction of ilmenite with activated carbon

The carbothermic reduction of Panzhihua ilmenite with various additions of activated carbon was investigated by isothermal experiments over the temperature range of 1373 to 1773 K in the argon atmosphere. According to the reaction kinetics recorded by the infrared gas analyzer, it was found that the amount of carbon addition had little influence on the reaction rates at various temperatures except 1473 K. When the reaction temperature was above the eutectic temperature of 1427 K of Fe-C binary system, part of carbon would dissolve into Fe to form a liquid phase, which made the liquid Fe as a diffusion channel of carbon to diffuse to the reaction interface. The carbothermic reduction above 1573 K obeyed the shrinking-core model. The mass fraction of TiC could be determined by the standard addition technique.