US 7,476,378 B2
Process for producing titanium dioxide
Narayanan Sankara Subramanian, Hockessin, Del. (US); Richard P. Bernard, Gulfport, Miss. (US); Yung-Hsing Samson Hsu, Gulfport, Miss. (US); Charles David Musick, Waverly, Tenn. (US); Kunle Ogunde, Wilmington, Del. (US); and James Nelson Tilton, Landenberg, Pa. (US)
Assigned to E.I. DuPont deNemours & Company, Wilmington, Del. (US)
Filed on Oct. 27, 2005, as Appl. No. 11/260,058.
Prior Publication US 2007/0172414 A1, Jul. 26, 2007
Int. Cl. C01G 23/00 (2006.01); C01G 23/047 (2006.01); C01G 23/07 (2006.01); B01J 21/06 (2006.01); B01J 37/07 (2006.01); B01J 37/12 (2006.01); B01J 37/14 (2006.01)
U.S. Cl. 423—613  [423/69; 423/75; 423/76; 423/79; 423/81; 423/84; 502/350] 20 Claims
 
1. A process for producing titanium dioxide, comprising:
a) providing a quantity of liquid titanium tetrahalide for reacting with an oxygen-containing gas;
b) vaporizing a first portion of the liquid titanium tetrahalide and reacting the titanium tetrahalide vapor and the oxygen-containing gas, in a first stage of a reaction zone, the reaction zone temperature being sufficient to form a reaction product at least containing titanium dioxide and oxygen-containing gas and passing the reaction product to at least one additional stage of the reaction zone; and
c) charging at least one additional portion of the liquid titanium tetrahalide directly into the at least one additional stage of the reaction zone at a temperature below the boiling point of the titanium tetrahalide, at the charge pressure of the titanium tetrahalide, to cool the titanium dioxide and to react with the oxygen-containing gas to form additional titanium dioxide, under conditions sufficient to form a product substantially free of titanium tetrahalide.