Patent ID: 8388727

Claim:
A continuous and semi-continuous process of manufacturing titanium hydride using titanium chlorides of different valency comprising the following reaction-concerning and operational stages: (a) blowing in hydrogen at 800-900° C. into a reaction retort filled with liquid titanium tetrachloride (TiCl 4 ), initiating reduction of TiCl 4 to titanium trichloride (TiCl 3 ) and partial reduction of TiCl 4 to titanium dichloride (TiCl 2 ) according to equations (1) and (2): 2TiCl 4 +H 2 =2TiCl 3 +2HCl (1) TiCl 4 +H 2 =TiCl 2 +2HCl (2) at 500-700° C. (1) or 650-850° C. (2) followed by cooling a mixture of TiCl 4 , TiCl 3 , and TiCl 2 down to 40-50° C., condensation of titanium trichloride (TiCl 3 ) and titanium dichloride (TiCl 2 ) in a solid phase, and removing a mixture of solid reaction products from the retort; (b) separating of residual titanium tetrachloride (TiCl 4 ) from solid low chlorides by heating the mixture of all titanium chlorides in argon or vacuum up to 150° C. followed by removing the titanium tetrachloride (TiCl 4 ) from the mixture; (c) dissociation of titanium trichloride (TiCl 3 ) to titanium dichloride (TiCl 2 ) at 450° C. in vacuum according to a reaction (3) or additional reduction of titanium trichloride (TiCl 3 ) to titanium dichloride (TiCl 2 ) by hydrogen according to the reaction (2) followed by removal of gaseous titanium tetrachloride from the reaction zone, condensation to the liquid, and returning back into the reaction retort, while the solid titanium dichloride is subjected to the next step of process; 2TiCl 3 =TiCl 2 +TiCl 4 (3) (d) dissociation of titanium dichloride (TiCl 2 ) in vacuum at 750-850° C. to manufacture fine powder of metallic titanium and titanium tetrachloride (TiCl 4 ) according to a reaction (4), wherein hydrogen heated up to 1000° C. is used at a pressure above the atmospheric pressure in order to accelerate this reaction and to remove gaseous titanium tetrachloride (TiCl 4 ) from the reaction zone to condensate the liquid, which is returned in the reaction retort of the step (a); 2TiCl 2 =Ti+TiCl 4 (4) (e) saturation of the fine titanium powder by hydrogen at 400-640° C. to manufacture final product of titanium hydride powder which is free of oxygen or nitrogen.