Studies on thermal plasma processing of minerals to form value added materials and development of thermal plasma reactor

Abstract

This thesis work focuses on the synthesis of value-added materials newlinefrom minerals through thermal plasma processing. The various minerals newlineavailable in India and the extraction of value-added materials from these newlineminerals, especially Beach Sand Minerals (BSM) are discussed in this thesis. newlineA detailed literature survey on the various production methods of value-added newlinematerials from these minerals has been studied. As part of this research work, newlinenon-transferred arc plasma reactor and transferred arc plasma reactors have newlinebeen developed to synthesize value-added materials from the BSM. The newlineproduction of zirconia (ZrO2) is important because it is used as a refractory newlineand coating material in high-temperature applications and used in medical and newlinedentistry fields as a load-bearing structural material. Pure zirconium metal newlineand its alloys are used in the nuclear industry as a cladding material for fuel newlinerods. Due to its high hardness and toughness, it is used as a cutting tool newlinematerial and in machining high-strength steel alloys. Likewise, Fe-TiN-Al2O3 newlinecomposite material has good hardness and toughness properties. Due to this, it newlinecan be used as a cutting tool material, resistant to high temperatures, and used newlinein heat exchangers, heating elements and igniters. Fe-TiO2 is a photocatalytic newlinematerial to decompose dye and water pollutants in visible light. So, the newlinesyntheses of zirconia from zircon (ZrSiO4) sand by the non-transferred arc newlineplasma reactor and Fe-TiN-Al2O3 and Fe-TiO2 from ilmenite sand by newlinetransferred arc plasma reactor are studied. newlineZirconia is synthesized from zircon sand by mixing zircon with newlinecarbon powder and processed in a specially designed non-transferred arc newlineplasma reactor operated using air as a plasma medium. The effect of the newlineaddition of carbon on in-flight removal of SiO2 as SiO gas from the newlinedissociated zircon was studied by varying the addition of carbon moles (C = newline0, 0.5, 1, 1.5 and 2). newline