Coal-Based Reduction and Magnetic Separation Behavior of Low-Grade Vanadium-Titanium Magnetite Pellets

Coal-based reduction and magnetic separation behavior of low-grade vanadium-titanium magnetite pellets were studied in this paper. It is found that the metallization degree increased obviously with an increase in the temperature from 1100 degrees C to 1400 degrees C. The phase composition transformation was specifically analyzed with X-ray diffraction (XRD). The microscopic examination was carried out with scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and the element composition and distribution were detected with energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). It is observed that the amounts of metallic iron particles obviously increased and the accumulation and growing tendency were gradually facilitated with the increase in the temperature from 1100 degrees C to 1400 degrees C. It is also found that the titanium oxides were gradually reduced and separated from ferrum-titanium oxides during reduction. In addition, with increasing the temperature from 1200 degrees C to 1350 degrees C, silicate phases, especially calcium silicate phases that were transformed from calcium ferrite at 1100 degrees C, were observed and gradually aggregated. However, at 1400 degrees C some silicate phases infiltrated into metallic iron, as it appears that the carbides, especially TiC, could probably contribute to the sintering phenomenon becoming serious. The transformation behavior of valuable elements was as follows: Fe2VO4 -> VO -> V -> VC; FeTiO3 (-> FeTi2O5) -> TiO2 -> TiC; FeCr2O4 -> Cr -> CrC; FeTiO3 (-> FeTi2O5) -> Fe0.5Mg0.5Ti2O5; (Fe3O4/ FeTiO3 ->) FeO -> Mg0.77Fe0.23O. Through the magnetic separation of coal-based reduced products, it is demonstrated that the separation of Cr, V, Ti, and non-magnetic phases can be preliminarily realized.