Abstract
Vanadium is prepared by aluminothermic reduction of oxides. As the reaction with V2O5 is highly vigorous, the reduction is carried out with V2O5/V2O3 mixture for controlled reaction. Reduction of V2O5 alone to vanadium with the addition of Al2O3 as heat-sink is proposed in this work. While keeping the heat of process constant at 3680 kJ/kg in laboratory thermite reactors, the slag fluidiser CaO was partially and then fully replaced with Al2O3. Use of Al2O3 resulted in controlled reaction (with recovery as metal reaching from 50% to 83%), lesser loss in slag (from 10% to 1% vanadium) and lower nitrogen (from 1000 ppm to 130 pm) in metal. MgO of the reactor sometimes participates in the reaction. The loss of vanadium in slag is related to MgAl2O4 content of the slag. Molten Al2O3 appears to scavenge the dissolved nitrogen from molten vanadium. Results have been explained from available thermodynamic data.
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