Titanium Dissolution from Indonesian Ilmenite

At present work, an experiment to dissolve titanium from Indonesian Ilmenite into the aqueous sulfuric acid solutions was carried out through a decomposition process which was followed with titanium dissolution from decomposed Ilmenite into the aqueous sulfuric acid solutions. Ilmenite decomposition process was done by using 10 mol/liter aqueous potassium hydroxide at temperature 150 o C for 4 hours in the autoclave and titanium dissolution from decomposed Ilmenite into the aqueous sulfuric acid solutions was carried out in the three neck glass reactor. The variable used for dissolution process were covering: dissolution temperature from 50 0 C up to 125 0 C, sulfuric acid concentrations from 50 persen up to 75 persen and dissolution time from 30 minutes up to 360 minutes. The effect of all those variables were observed on the titanium and iron dissolution from decomposed Ilmenite, whereas the titanium and iron dissolved into the aqueous sulfuric acid solutions were represented as a fraction of titanium [XTi] and a fraction of iron [XFe] dissolved from decomposed Ilmenite. The result of the dissolution experiments show that [XTi] increased when the dissolution temperature were increased from 50 o C to 125 o C and sulfuric acid concentration were increased from 50 persen to 75 persen. In case of iron, at dissolution temperature 50oC, [XFe] increased when the sulfuric acid concentration were increased from 50 persen to 75 persen , however at dissolution temperature 75 0 C, [XFe] was slightly decreased when the sulfuric acid concentration were increased from 50 persen to 75 persen. Almost 85 persen of titanium and 30 persen of iron were dissolved into the aqueous sulfuric acid solution when the decomposed ilmenite were dissolve into 75 persen sulfuric acid solutions at dissolution temperature 125 o C for dissolution time 2 hours, and from the kinetical study, the titanium dissolution from decomposed ilmenite follows the diffusion control model, with activated energy 59 Kj/mole. International Journal of Basic & Applied Sciences IJBAS-IJENS, Vol. 13, No. 4. Hal. 97-103