Modelling TiO2 production by explicit use of reaction kinetics

This chapter discusses modeling TiO2 production by explicit use of reaction kinetics. Titanium dioxide (TiO2) is a bulk commodity, which is used as a white pigment, for paints, plastics, paper, and rubber. TiO2 pigment is produced by two major industrial routes from its ore, which is either ilmenite or either natural or synthetic rutile. Ilmenite-based raw materials are used for the wet sulfuric acid process, while rutile is the major input for the high-temperature chloride process. After years of development, the manufacturing processes remain in extensive use and represent both economically effective and environmentally sound industrial practice. The chapter presents the examples where the combined reaction rate–multi-phase calculation has been applied to two characteristic unit processes of TiO2 production. As the Gibbs energy model inherently calculates other thermodynamic properties, such as heat capacities, enthalpies, and entropies, it is usually beneficial to use Gibbs energy-based modeling in process calculations.