| 摘要 |
<p>A combination reduction, distillation, reducing metal recovery furnace and process of using the same comprising a pair of vertically displaced vessels in fluid communication wherein the upper vessel contains a perforated inner liner and means to at least periodically charge the top of the vessel with the metal salt to be reduced and a reducing metal, and wherein the lower vessel has a means to periodically withdraw the molten reducing metal salt produced by the redox reaction occurring within the furnace. By initially charging the furnace with sufficient reducing metal salt to establish a liquid level to provide a liquid seal above the bottom of the inner liner and by maintaining this level during the redox reaction, the inner liner can be filled with solid phase reduced metal produced by the reaction (and no reduced metal is produced outside of the liner). Upon completion, the molten reducing metal salt is drained from the furnace, the lower vessel is cooled and the unreacted reducing metal is distilled from the upper vessel and collected in the lower vessel. The unreacted reducing metal can be recycled to the subsequent run by loading a quantity of reducing metal salt into upper vessel and melting it. The reducing metal in the lower vessel is then melted and allowed to float up into the inner liner of the upper vessel where it provides a portion of the reducing metal required for the subsequent run. Such a process and apparatus is useful in producing large quantities of high purity metal such as Zr, Ti, Hf and the like.</p> |
