Processing options growing rapidly10 Jan 2024 10:24
patenting activities
relevant patent families describing titanium dioxide production from ilmenite, 2002–2021.
academic and public institutions having significant patent activity in titanium dioxide production. 2022
between 2002 and 2022, there have been 459 patent families that describe the production of titanium dioxide from ilmenite, and this number is growing rapidly. the majority of these patents describe pre-treatment processes, such as using smelting and magnetic separation to increase titanium concentration in low-grade ores, leading to titanium concentrates or ****s. other patents describe processes to obtain titanium dioxide, either by a direct hydrometallurgical process or through two industrially exploited processes, the sulfate process and the chloride process.[57]
acid leaching might be used either as a pre-treatment or as part of a hydrometallurgical process to directly obtain titanium dioxide or synthetic rutile (>90 percent titanium dioxide, tio2). the sulfate process represents 40% of the world’s titanium dioxide production and is protected in 23% of patent families. the chloride process is only mentioned in 8% of patent families, although it provides 60% of the worldwide industrial production of titanium dioxide.[57]
key contributors to patents on the production of titanium dioxide are companies from china, australia and the united states, reflecting the major contribution of these countries to industrial production. chinese companies pangang and lomon billions groups are the main contributors and hold diversified patent portfolios covering both pre-treatment and the processes leading to a final product.[57]
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