PROCESS AND EQUIPMENT FOR THE TREATMENT OF A MATERIAL BY MEANS OF AN ARC DISCHARGE PLASMA

摘要

Metal compounds are reduced by creating a plasma between two spaced electrodes, which plasma rotates about an axis joining the electrodes, and delivering the reactants to a region of the plasma spaced from the electrodes. The desired reaction occurs near this region, and the plasma is of such a nature that the desired products of the reaction travel in a radial direction out of the plasma. The present invention recovers the desired products of the reaction by causing a halogen or halide to react with the desired product so as to form a metal halide from which the metal is subsequently recovered.