Kinetics and mechanism of hydrogen reduction of ilmenite powders

Both isothermal and non-isothermal reduction experiments of Panzhihua ilmenite powders by H2 were carried out. It was shown that in the temperature range of 1146-1201 K, the main reduction products were Fe, TiO2 and MgTiO3 with the iron being embedded in TiO2 matrix. The reduction reaction was controlled by the chemical reaction with the apparent activation energy being extracted to be 98.35-99.02 kJ/mol by using a new kinetic model. However, under the non-isothermal condition, as gradually increasing the temperature to 1493 K, TiO2 and MgTiO3 could be reduced, and the final products were metallic iron and MgxTi3−xO5 (x was in the range of 0.45-1).82