Lafarge Canada Inc.

Adrian Joseph

John Graham Whellock

David Bridson Oates

Philip Souza Zacarias

Adrian A Joseph

A synthetic slag is produced by melting the mineral content of an organic carbon-containing mineral, for example, oil shale or tar sands, with a source of lime such as cement kiln dust. The organic carbon, especially hydrocarbon, content of the mineral is oxidized by oxygen gas, which typically is derived from air or an air/oxygen combination, in an exothermic reaction and the heat generated provides the thermal energy for the reaction between the mineral content and the source of lime. In this way the gaseous products will typically comprise nitrogen, unreacted oxygen, water vapor and carbon dioxide, and heat energy can be readily recovered from the hot off gas products evolving during the combustion reaction. The synthetic slag may be pelletized and employed as lightweight mineral aggregate or milled, or atomized and then milled, to cement fineness to provide slag cement.

Use of organic carbon-containing minerals

A method for refining a titanium metal containing ore such as rutile or ilmenite or mixtures to produce titanium ingots or titanium alloys and compounds of titanium involves production of titanium tetrachloride by processing the ore with a chlorinating procedure and removing various impurities by a distillation or similar procedures to form a relatively pure titanium tetrachloride. Thereafter, the titanium tetrachloride is introduced continuously into a reactor at the focal point of a plasma under atmospheric pressures of inert gas along with molten metallic reductant for the initial reduction of gas phase titanium tetrachloride into molten titanium drops which are collected in a set of skulled crucibles. Thereafter, further processing is carried out at atmospheric pressures in under inert gas where the titanium is heated by plasma guns to maximize titanium purity and, in a final optional stage, alloying compounds are added under the same controlled environment and high temperature conditions.

Low cost high speed titanium and its alloy production

A synthetic slag is produced by a high temperature combustion reaction between coal ash having a high carbon content, and a source of lime such as cement kiln dust. The carbon content of the coal ash is oxidized by oxygen gas, which typically is derived from air or an air/oxygen combination in an exothermic reaction and the heat generated is exploited in the melting process. In this way the gaseous products will typically comprise nitrogen, unreacted oxygen and carbon dioxide, and heat energy can be readily recovered from the hot off gas products evolving during the combustion reaction. The synthetic slag may be pelletized and employed as lightweight mineral aggregate or milled to cement fineness to provide slag cement.

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Castle Rock, CO, United States of America

John Graham Whellock