Distribution behavior of vanadium and titanium between hot metal and high titanium slag relevant to HIsmelt smelting condition

The HIsmelt process is well suited for smelting vanadium-titanium magnetite and has significant potential. In this paper, the vanadium and titanium distribution behavior at 1450 °C in the basicity range of 0.3–1.2 during HIsmelt smelting vanadium titano-magnetite was investigated experimentally for the first time. According to thermodynamic calculations combined with experimental validation, lower C content increases the activity coefficients of vanadium and titanium in the metal. Higher basicity decreases the activity coefficients of TiO2 and SiO2 in the slag, improves the distribution ratio of vanadium and titanium. Increasing C content and reducing basicity could increase the content of vanadium in the metal and TiO2 in the slag, which is favorable to vanadium extraction and titanium recovery. Furthermore, the V and Ti content in the hot metal increased significantly with rising smelting temperature. Higher smelting temperatures promote vanadium distribution into hot metal but not titanium distribution into slag. Finally, The Si and Ti distribution ratios have a positive connection according to the fitted models.