From Beach to Bulk Metal: A One-Step Self-Catalytic Hydrogen Plasma Reduction Route to Fe-Ti-V Alloys

Titanomagnetite is an easily accessible and abundant Fe-rich mineral that also serves as a source for Ti and V production. However, the conventional carbon-based extraction pathways are environmentally burdensome whilst other proposed ‘green reduction’ methods are inefficient at coping with the high levels of impurities present in this complex mineralogy. Hence, new processing alternatives are needed for efficient and sustainable extraction of its constituent high-value metal elements. This study shows how sustainable hydrogen plasma smelting reduction, aided by hydrogen excited species, enables fast, efficient and selective recovery of Fe, Ti and V in a single process step and reactor. Intricate chemical partitioning occurs during the plasma reduction process that induces formation of intermediate oxide species, which then enable a form of self-catalytic enhanced oxygen exchange and removal by plasma-excited hydrogen species. As such, the process opens unconventional reduction pathways towards partial and full reduction of hard-to-reduce Ti and V-bearing oxides. These unique and innovative process-related features ultimately enable sustainable direct production of an Fe-Ti-V alloy that has the potential to mitigate 100s of Mt of CO 2 and toxic slag generation and reducing the energy intensity (4.2 GJ/t energy savings) of metal Ti and V production. Additionally, this provides the first experimental evidence to produce Ti in bulk metallic form using a hydrogen plasma, in a process that has a positive economic viability and is readily applicable to future industrial-scale deployment.