Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba

Mitsuru Kawamoto

Hitoshi Nakamura

Koji Mizuguchi

Reiko Fujita

Kouki Fuse

Masaru Ito

An object of the present invention is to provide a method of producing metal zirconium, the method having a fewer steps and a smaller amount of secondary wastes generated, wherein the metal zirconium is obtained from a zirconium compound containing hafnium. A method of producing metal zirconium according to the present invention includes: a separation step of separating a hafnium oxychloride from a first substance containing a zirconium oxychloride and a hafnium oxychloride to obtain a second substance having a higher content of the zirconium oxychloride; a calcination step of calcining the second substance to obtain a third substance containing at least any of a zirconium oxychloride and a zirconium oxide; and a direct reduction step of holding the third substance in a molten salt with the third substance brought into contact with a cathode and applying a voltage between the cathode and an anode to directly reduce the third substance to obtain metal zirconium.

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Tokorozawa, Japan

Mitsuru Kawamoto