Environmental impact of ilmenite from mines to product.

Abstract

Currently titanium is considered scarce, thus it is imperative to effectives the current use of titanium rich ores such as ilmenite. Based on a review of the gathered information, calculation and flowcharts a probable solution for the effectivization of ilmenite usage is by combining flows of two existing ilmenite processes. The effect of which will make ilmenite usage more sustainable and in turn better for the environment. Oxygen carrier aided combustion (OCAC) and titanium dioxide (TiO2) production are two processes that could potentially be combined. The outcome of the combined process is that greater amount of waste in mass is accumulated overall both in the ilmenite processes and emissions from transportation. However, less titanium ends up as waste in combined flow in comparison to the singular flow. Further studies are needed in order to establish if the reduction in usage of titanium outweighs the increase of overall emissions from a sustainability frame of reference.