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Cheap, Greener Method of Extracting Titanium Dioxide Developed
February 12, 2008 at 3:33 PM
Environmental Health
In the form of a powder, TiO2 is used as an intensely white pigment to brighten everyday products such as paint, paper, plastics, food, medicines, ceramics, cosmetics - and even toothpaste.
Titanium dioxides exceptional UV ray absorption qualities make it perfect for sunscreen lotions too. In addition, it is a precursor material for titanium metal production.
But despite its relative abundance in nature, its natural occurrence is never pure, being bound with contaminant metals such as iron, aluminium and radio-active elements.
Pigment grade TiO2 is extracted from mineral ore by smelting, then treating the slag with chlorine, or by directly introducing it into a sulphuric acid solution.
These two processes generate toxic and hazardous wastes and the treatment of such wastes is expensive and complex.
Professor Animesh Jha, from the Universitys Faculty of Engineering, has introduced a patented process that consists of roasting the mineral ore with alkali to remove the contaminants, which are washed and leached with acid to yield valuable by-products for the electronics industry.
The coarse residue left behind is then reacted with 20 times less than the usual amount of chlorine to produce titanium dioxide powder.
The process gives an average yield of up to 97 per cent TiO2, compared with the current industry average of 85 per cent.
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