1

ABOUT KERALA MINERALS AND METALS LTD.

Kerala has one of the richest and one of most extensive heavy mineral deposits in the
world. These deposits stretch along the seacoast between Kayamkulam and
Neendakara, a trait generally known as Chavara coast. The main constituents in the
deposits are Ilmenite, Rutile, Leucoxene, Sillimanite, Zircon and Monazite. The first
three viz Ilmenite, Rutile and Leucoxene are titanium bearing minerals and hence
used for the manufacture of titanium dioxide pigment and titanium sponge metal.
In 1932, a company named M/s. F.X. Pereira and Sons Travancore Pvt. Ltd was
registered. Mineral sand mining and Ilmenite separation was started by them. In
1972 this company was taken over by Kerala Government and was renamed as The
Kerala Minerals and Metals Limited.
In 1974 permission for the manufacture of TiO2 pigment was procured and the project
work started in 1979, with the technical support of foreign companies like M/s.
Benelite Corporation of America, M/s. Woodall Duckham of U.K. and M/s. Kerr Mc
Gee Chemical Corporation of MEA. TiO2 pigment production was started in the
Pigment Production Unit at KMML by Chloride Process. Now the capacity of the
plant has been increased to about 40,000 TPY.
KMML is the only company in the whole world where the plants for mineral sand
mining, separation, beneficiation and TiO2 production are erected under a single roof.
KMML produces mainly five grades of TiO2pigment. The main consumers of the
product are the paint, paper, printing ink and rubber industries.







2

ILMENITE BENEFICIATION PLANT (IBP)

Ilmenite Beneficiation Plant (IBP) is designed and installed based on the BCA Cyclic
Process Technology data furnished by their associates M/s. Multi Resources
International Corporation.
The rated capacity of the plant is 45,000 TPY of Beneficiated Ilmenite (BI) containing
a minimum of 90-92% TiO2 which is the raw material for the pigment production
unit, using Quilon Grade Ilmenite as raw material. The plant is in a single stream.
The basic raw materials are:
Raw Ilmenite
Lecofines
HCl
Beneficiated Ilmenite also called Synthetic Rutileis used as the raw material in
Pigment Production Plant (PPP) and TiO2 is manufactured through Chloride
Technology. The IBP is divided into three major sections
(a) Roasting and Cooling Section
(b) Digestion and Filtration Section
(c) Calcination and Cooling Section
PROCESS DESCRIPTION
Here, Raw Ilmenite (RI) is collected form sea washing, processed and synthetic rutile
is manufactured and TiO2 is produced. The basic raw material, Raw Ilmenite is
conveyed from the respective storage building to hopper through a system of
conveyors and bucket elevators. Another solid raw material, petroleum coke which is
used as reductant, is conveyed through conveyors and bucket elevators to another
hopper
(a)Roasting and Cooling Section
In the roaster, the chemical reaction is reduction. Reduction is the process by which
the oxygen content of mineral is lowered by heating in a controlled atmosphere. The

3

reductant used here is Lecofines. It supplies carbon for reduction. Raw Ilmenite and
Lecofines are fed to a rotary kiln called roaster where the temperature is maintained at
about 900-950
0
C for reduction to get Reduced Ilmenite (REI) which is then cooled in
a cooler to about 80
0
C. About 80% of Fe2O3 present in Raw Ilmenite is converted to
FeO during reduction. Heavy fuel oil burner directly fires the roaster. Here counter
current operation takes place. Feed is send through one end, and at the discharge end
fuel oil is fired at 120
0
C. Fuel oil should be maintained at 120
0
C, otherwise it will be
solidified.
Combustion gases flow counter currently to the feed. Most of the total theoretical air
required for complete combustion is provided through the burner by primary air fan.
The secondary air fan supplies the remaining theoretical air and also some excess air
through an insert pipe, which is inserted from the discharge end of kiln. The excess
air burns out with part of reductant and helps to reraise the Ilmenite bed to reducing
temperature for sustaining perfect reduction. Part of the flue gas from the kiln is
recycled by recycle fan. The recycled flue gas is used to maintain reducing
conditions.
The kiln exhaust gases pass through a dust cyclone to recover the carry over dust and
a quencher scrubber where ash and any fuel carried over as vapor or mist is scrubbed
out with water and in the process the exhaust gases are also cooled down. The
cleaned exhaust gases are sucked off by the draft fans and discharged through the
stack to the atmosphere.
The hot Reduced Ilmenite (REI) discharged from the kiln is directly sent into a rotary
water cooler where it is first quenched by direct water spraying. Due to this steam is
generated preventing hot Ilmenitefrom reoxidation. The material is further cooled to
about 150
0
C by circulating water through the cooler tubes. The outlet water from the
cooler tubes is sprayed on the cooler shell at the free end. The REI leaving the cooler
may contain small agglomerates and unburnt Lecofines, which are separated on the
vibrating screen. The product is then transferred to RI storage hopper though belt
conveyor and bucket elevator.
The Ilmenite roasted in reduced atmosphere convert majority of Ferric oxide present
as impurities in the Ilmenite to more easily leachable Ferrous oxide. The main
reactions taking place here are:

4

2C+O2 2CO
C+CO2 2CO
Fe2O 3+C 2FeO + CO
Fe2O 3+CO2 FeO+CO2
(b)Digestion and Filtration Section
The Reduced Ilmenite is taken to the digester section. Digester is a spherical batch
operator vessel where leaching process called selective adsorption is carried out. The
principle of leaching is that the material that is leaching should be immiscible with the
leaching liquor.
The Reduced Ilmenite is leached twice with 19-20% HCl obtained from Acid
Regeneration Plant mixed with commercial HCl from TCC in digesters at 143
0
C.
There are two leaching stages. For the first stage 51m
3
of HCl is used and for second
stage 42m
3
of HCl. Acid leaching of reduced Ilmenite is to remove iron compounds
and other undesired matters in the heat of the processing for producing upgraded
Ilmenite.
FeTiO3 + 2HCl FeCl2 +TiO2 + H2O
During the reaction TiO2 content in the Ilmenite is increased from 59% to 93% and all
Ferrous oxide, part of the Ferric oxide, part of other oxides like Manganous oxide,
Magnesium oxide etc. are dissolved in the acid which is sent to ARP for recovery.
Part of Cr2O3 and V2O5are also removed but SiO2 and ZrO2are remained with
TiO2.The basic leaching process is controlled by the acid to Ilmenite ratio, pressure
and temperature of the digesters during leaching and the leach cycle time.
The leached Ilmenite after washing with 50m
3
wash water is dumped into the
launders. From the launder it is pumped as slurry and filtered through a horizontally
moving vacuum belt filter. The filter cake is washed with water to remove most of
acid present. This product called leached Ilmenite is then passed to the calciner
through belt conveyors.
To increase the TiO2 content, more concentrated acid can be used, but the problem is
that fines generated with be more and will go through the filtrate or overflow and so
19.5% acid is used for the leaching. The weightage of Ilmenite will be less after

5

leaching due to removal of Fe compounds. Thus from 1.66 ton Raw Ilmenite 1 ton of
Beneficiated Ilmenite is manufactured. The chemical reactions taking place during
leaching are:
FeO + 2HCl FeCl2 + H2O
Fe2O3 + 6HCl 2FeCl2 + 3H2O
Acid Liquor Treatment Section:
The spent liquor and wash liquor blown down from the digesters are passed through
different series of settling tanks and fines removal system for removal of carry over
Ilmenite solids. The clean spent acid and wash water thus obtained are pumped to the
Acid Regeneration Plant for regenerating the acid. The recovered acids received from
the storage tank are pumped together using ratio controller to get mixed acid of 19 to
20% concentration for using in the digesters. Wash water is used as absorbent.
(c) Calcination and Cooling Section
In the calciner and cooling section, the Leached Ilmenite wet cake is calcined at about
500-550
0
C to remove moisture from 27% to 0.5% and residual carbonaceous and
volatile matter that are carried over during roasting and leaching process. The hot
product is then cooled to 80
0
C in the cooler.
The wet cake from the belt filter is conveyed to rotary calciner by screw feeder and is
calcined. The temperature to which the material is calcined is 500-550
0
C, where the
liquid containing HCl acid, the ferric and ferrous chlorides and the carried over
carbonaceous matters are removed. Heavy fuel oil burner directly fires the calciner.
The primary air is supplied by primary air fan and the secondary air by the calciner
exhaust fan. The exhaust gases leaving the calciner passes through a cyclone which is
equipped with steam traps to prevent HCl vapors from condensing. Steam trapping
isused in cold condition during startup. The recovered micro fines in the cyclone are
used as flux in welding electrodes. The vapor leaving the cyclone enters the gas
scrubber, where the gas is scrubbed with recirculating water to remove traces of HCl
present in the exhaust gas and during this operation gas is also cooled. The acid bleed
from the scrubber is sent to wash water blow down tank. The waste gases are then
exhausted by the exhaust fan to the atmosphere through stack. The red hot BI is

6

cooled to 80
0
C in rotary cooler by direct contact with counter current flow of air. BI
from the cooler is then screened on the vibrating screen and then allowed to fall on to
the product belt weigh feeder which feeds the material to the bucket elevator and then
to the product transfer conveyor. The BI is then either discharged to the belt conveyor
for onwards transportation of the material to the pigment production plant or dumped
into the BI storage building. No chemical reactions take place during calcination.


















7


ACID REGENERATION PLANT (ARP)

Acid Regeneration Plant (ARP) is designed to regenerate HCl acid from spent leach
liquor containing some free HCl and metallic chlorides (Fe
2+
& Fe
3+
) obtained from
the digesters after leaching.
The whole system operates under vacuum. The spent liquor from IBP is given to
recycle tank through a level control valve (LCV) which is a pneumatic control valve,
and then to preconcentrater. From the preconcentrater it is given to spray roaster, after
filtration of sediments. In the spray roaster, the liquid spray entering the furnace is
heated by fuel oil and is decomposed to metallic oxides and HCl vapor. Iron oxide is
separated from HCl using dry cyclone and is send to preconcentrater.Theseparated
iron oxide is given to the slurry box through a rotary air lock system where it is
slurried with pond water and is given off to pond itself. Since there is an optimum
temperature for absorption, the temperature has to be reduced. This is done in pre-
concentrator, by exchanging heat with the spent liquor from recycle tank. Also during
the process more and more HCl is converted to vapor form. Then it is given to
absorber through wet cyclone which separates moisture carryover from vapor
Absorber is a packed column with ceramic packing where HCl is absorbed in wash
liquor from IBP at about 90-95
0
C. Maximum absorption of HCl takes place here and
is send to IBP. Some minute % of HCl which is unabsorbed is given to tail scrubber
which is also a packed bed with polypropylene pad rings. Scrubbing is done with
water. HCl is recovered and water vapor is passed out through stack using a blower.
Thus 18% HCl is recovered and it is recycled back to IBP. The main purpose of acid
regeneration is pollution prevention than for the sake of economy.




8

Spray Roaster
Roaster is the most important equipment in ARP. It is constructed of carbon steel. The
purpose of roasting is to recover HCl acid from spent acid and to convert Iron
chlorides to Iron oxide.
4FeCl2 + 4H2O + O2 2Fe2O3 + 8HCl
2FeCl3 + 3H2O Fe2O3 + 6HCl
Pre-concentrator liquor is pumped from the recycle tank by the roaster feed pump
through fine filter to the spray boom assemblies at the top of the spray roaster. The
spray booms are each filled with a number of spray nozzles which finely atomize the
liquor into the top of the roaster. There is a fury burner mounted at the bottom portion
of roaster. It is lined inside with material like whytheat C, firecrete material etc. At the
top portion there is no need of lining. Lining thickness increases from top to bottom.
Burner temperature should be at about 1350
0
C.
First the burner is fired with LPG and when there is sufficient temperature to sustain
burning of fuel oil, a flame detector senses the flame. It automatically cuts off the
LPG supply and starts fuel oil spray. Then the burner continues to work on fuel oil.
These burners fire tangentially into the roaster and cause a flow of hot gases to spiral
upwards. These hot gases come into contact with the descending liquor droplets from
the spray nozzles. The hot gases evaporate water and free hydrochloric acid content of
the liquor, the spray dried chlorides then react to form hydrogen chloride and the
appropriate oxide. Most of the resulting oxide is discharged from the base of the
roaster, but some is entrained in the gases leaving out. These gases are passed through
a dry cyclone set before flowing on to preconcentrater. The oxide retained by the
cyclone set is returned to the oxide slurrying box.
Cyclones
The cyclones are used primarily for the separation of solids from fluid and utilize
centrifugal force to effect the separation. Such a separation depends not only on
particle size but also on particle density. It consists of a short vertical cylinder, closed
by a flat or dished plate on top and by a conical bottom. The air with its load of solid
is introduced tangentially at the top of the cylindrical portion. Centrifugal forces

9

throw the solid particles out against the wall and drop into the hopper. This iron oxide
is separated and slurried which has a high acid content. This iron oxide after
necessary treatments can be used as red oxide.

Pre-Concentrator
It is the heart of ARP. It is used for concentrating the spent leach liquor from IBP.
Spent leach liquor from the spent liquor storage tank is pumped to the pre-
concentrator recycle tank. The pre-concentrator recycle pump continuously circulates
liquor from the recycle tank to the preconcentrater. Two important operating
conditions are performed in the pre-concentrator. First of all, the temperature of HCl
from the roaster ranges from 365 to 375
0
C. The circulating liquor in the pre-
concentrator is made to contact with hot gases coming from the dry cyclone sets. This
results in the hot gases being cooled from about 375
0
C to 96
0
C, the heat so released
being used to evaporate water from the circulating liquor. The circulating liquor
drains back to recycle tank. Since the optimum temperature for absorption 90-95
0
C is
required, this is done for exchanging heat with spent liquor from recycle tank. Also
during the process, more and more HCl is converted to vapor form. The gases pass to
the absorber through wet cyclone where any remaining liquor is removed and drained
to the recycle tank.
Hydrogen Chloride Absorption
Absorber is a packed bed containing ceramic materials. The gases from the wet
cyclones are passed upwards through the absorber where they are contacted counter
current with absorber feed liquor fed from the top of the absorber head tank. This
results in virtually all the hydrogen chloride content of the gas stream being absorbed
to form recovered acid containing 18.8%. The recovered acid flows by gravity to the
recovered acid storage tanks. The gases from the top of the absorber are then passed
upwards through the tail scrubber, where it is contacted counter currently with tail
scrubber circulating liquor inorder to remove most of the residual HCl content. The
gases pass from the top of the tail scrubber to the exhaust fan through the exhaust fan
damper. The gases from the exhaust fan are discharged into the exhaust stack.


10

Oxide slurry system
The oxide from the roaster and dry cyclone is discharged into oxide slurrying box.
The oxide is flushed down through the oxide slurry launder by a copious supply of
water into the slurry tank. From the slurry tank it is pumped to the slurry pond. The
concentration of acid in it is very high. So after necessary treatments it can be used as
red oxide. The water supply to the slurrying box consists of clarified water from the
slurry pond via the return water pumps
Emergency Dump System
It is for maintaining an emergency system to safe guard equipment in case of an
emergency plant stoppage. For maintaining emergency water in the absorber head
tank and automatically controlling water flow to pre concentrator recycle tank during
emergency shutdown


.










11


CHLORINATION SECTION

Here Beneficiated Ilmenite from IBP is chlorinated to produce TiCl4 (Tickle).
Chlorine reacts with TiO2 and other metallic oxide impurities in BI in the presence of
petroleum coke at a temperature of about 800-900
0
C in a fluidized bed chlorinator to
produce chlorides of Titanium and other impurity metals. The chlorides of impurity
metals are removed and TiCl4 is condensed in crude form. This TiCl4 is further
purified to obtain pure TiCl4 liquid, which is stored in storage tanks. The purified
TiCl4 produced in U-200 is used in making TiO2 raw pigment in oxidation section.
The primary vessels in which TiCl4 is produced in U-200 are called chlorinators. The
process adopted here is fluidized bed process. The chemical reactions taking place
here are:
(a) TiO(impure)+O TiCl4+CO
(b) TiO(impure)+2Cl+CTiCl4+CO
(c) TiO(impure)+2Cl+2CTiCl4+2CO
The first reaction is endothermic: heat required for this conversion may be provided
insitu by adding carbon to rutile. This carbon will combine with oxygen in the rutile
to form carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide. The second and third reactions
represent the overall reaction.
The chlorination section is subdivided into:
Chlorine storage and Handling
Chlorinators
Waste solids & Fume Scrubbing system
Tickle Condensing System
Vent Gas Scrubbing System
Tickle Purification System
Lime Preparation Plant (LPP)

12

Effluent Neutralization Plant (ENP)
Brine chilling Plant

First of all, fire is built in chlorinator using excelsior, charcoal and kerosene. The air
for combustion enters the chlorinator through the bottom. As fire burns vigorously,
coke is added slowly until 1.3m bed height is built and is maintained. Chlorinator is
constructed of mild steel and has a capacity of 800 - 900 tons. It is lined with acid
proof refractory firebrick.
When the coke bed temperature is about 815
0
C and at a pressure of about 1kg/cm
2
,
rutile ore or Beneficiated Ilmenite (BI) is fed to chlorinator while coke burns away.
The main impurity in BI is silica. When silica content becomes 40-45% it is drained
off. Chlorine gas is introduced into the bottom of the chlorinator from chlorine storage
tank. The recycled chlorine gas from the oxidation plant is also fed through the
bottom. Chlorine reacts with TiO2, coke and other metallic impurities to produce
tickle and other metallic chlorides.
Ore and coke are fed continuously to maintain the proper composition and level of the
bed since both ore and coke are consumed while chlorine passes through the
chlorinator. The gas from the chlorinator passes through a cross over pipe which is
lined with refractory bricks. There is a water injector on the cross over pipe to remove
Aluminium chlorides. A spray of crude liquid tickle from Crude Tickle Quench Surge
Tank (F-204) cools the gases to about 200
0
C. This cold gas contains TiCl4, CO2, CO
metallic chlorides as vapors and/ or solid and small particles of coke and ore that are
carried over. The gas stream is passed through cyclones F-201, F-202, F-203 and from
there to the condensing column (D-205). At the bottom of the cyclone the unreacted
ore, coke particles and the metallic chlorides are removed and discharged to a waste
solid sump (F-1569) from where they are pumped to the Effluent Neutralization Plant.
Crude tickle is then cooled with water in a shell and tube heat exchanger enters the
top of the column and condenses the upward flowing tickle gas stream. The crude
liquid tickle then flows by gravity to Quench Surge Tank (F-204) and then to Crude
Tickle Storage Tank (F-205). The gases leaving the top of the condensing column
(D-205) are passed through a water cooled condenser (E-206), a knock out pot and a
refrigerated condenser (E-207). In this, the refrigerant is a mixture of methyl alcohol

13

and water. The crude tickle from condensers is sent to F-205. After cooling in the
refrigerated condenser to -20
0
C, the gases are sent to acid scrubber (D-556) and to a
lime scrubber (D-1501). The tailings from acid scrubber are given to Acid Recovery
Plant and from lime scrubber to Lime Processing Plant.
The vent gases are pulled through the scrubber by vent gas blower and discharged
through knock out pot F-1502 and vent stack, further dilute the vent gases by blowing
air through the stack. Crude tickle that has been collected in the Crude Tickle Surge
Tank is 99.5% pure. However this may contain Vanadium oxychloride impurity. So
this must be further purified for use in succeeding oxidation section.
The crude TiCl4is pumped to the reactor D-213 where it is heated and vanadium
chloride gets reacted with the treating oil to form a compound which is separated from
TiCl4 by distillation. The temperature (150-160
0
C) is maintained in the oil treatment
reactorD-213 by circulating the contents of the reactor through a steam heated
reboilerE-210 and E211.The TiCl4, SiCl4 and SnCl4 vapors boil off and pass through
the heavy ends column E-215. The overhead product pure tickle is cooled in the
heavy ends condenser and some tickle is returned to the column D-215 as reflux and
balance is pumped to storage tanks D-222, D-223 and D-224 and is given as the raw
material to the Oxidation plant.










14

OXYGEN PLANT

Oxygen Plant is designed to produce pure Oxygen and Nitrogen from atmospheric air.
The method adopted for separation of oxygen and nitrogen from liquid air is known as
rectification. Boiling point of Oxygen is -183
0
C and of Nitrogen is -196
0
C.
Rectification takes advantage of the fact that, usually one of the two components will
be more volatile than the other. Here Nitrogen is more volatile than Oxygen and this
difference in volatility makes it possible for separating Nitrogen and Oxygen from
liquid air.
Process Description:
Atmospheric air is drawn through air intake filter and is compressed in reciprocating
air compressors and cooled to about -10
0
C in Freon refrigeration cooler and moisture
condensed is separated out in a moisture separator. Air is then passed through driers
containing activated alumina and molecular sieves for effective adsorption of
moisture and carbon dioxide.
The dried process air is passed through a heat exchanger where one part is partially
cooled by the cold outgoing gases from the fractionating column. The partially cooled
air at -149
0
C is then expanded in an expansion turbine where the temperature further
falls to -162
0
C and pressure to 5.5 kg/cm
2
. The air then along with fully cooled
partially liquefied air from the heat exchanger is fed to the bottom of the fractionating
column.
In the fractionating column liquid air is separated into oxygen and nitrogen. The
oxygen coming out of the fractionating column is further compressed in an oxygen
compressor to about 4kg/cm
2
and supplied to oxidation plant for oxidizing TiCl4.
The nitrogen gas is also compressed to about 14kg/cm
2
in a nitrogen compressor and
supplied to various plants. Since the distillation of air is achieved at very low
temperatures the fractionating column, the heat exchanger and expansion tube etc. are
installed inside a metal closure called Cold Box and this cold box is filled with an
insulating material mineral wool to maintain the very low temperatures.

15

OXIDATION SECTION

Oxidation section of Pigment Production Plant is designated as U-300. In this plant
Tickle (TiCl4) is vaporized, pre heated and is oxidized with oxygen to produce raw
TiO2 at a temperature of about 1050
0
C. Oxidation is the most important process
section of this plant as the know-how of oxidizing TiCl4 in special oxidizer reactors is
the key to Rutile grade TiO2 pigment production.
This unit is subdivided into following sections.
Aluminium chloride dissolving system
TiCl4 vaporizer system
TiCl4 preheater system
Oxygen preheating system
Oxidizer, KCl feed system and Sand Score system
Reactor Cooling system
DI Water system
Pigment separation system
Chlorine compressor system
Pretreatment and slurry system
Sand handling system
Vent gas system
Turbines
Raw Materials
a. Purified Tickle
b. Oxygen
c. Aluminium chloride
d. Caustic soda
e. Hydrochloric acid
f. Sodium hexa meta phosphate(HMP)
g. Sulphuric acid

16

h. Sodium dichromate
i. Potassium chloride fused silica

Process Description:
In this unit purified tickle fromU-200 is mixed with AlCl3 and vapor of this mixture is
oxidized in the oxidizer with oxygen in presence of LPG flame to produce TiO2
pigment. Chlorine which is obtained as a byproduct is filtered, cooled, dried and
compressed before sending back to U-200 for chlorination of titanium ore there.
Pure tickle from tickle storage tank is pumped using tickle transfer pumps (G-235/G-
236) through a heater (E- 323) at temperature of 125
0
C to 135
0
C to aluminum
chloride dissolving tank (D-303). Pre calculated quantity of AlCl3 is mixed with the
tickle in this tank and agitated using agitator (G-307). This solution after settling is
transferred to the surge tank (D-304) from which the feed material for further process
is drawn. Quantity of AlCl3 to be added varies for different grades of raw pigments
produced.AlCl3 is dissolved in it inorder to prevent agglomeration of the TiO2 formed
during the reaction. Since the vessel is glass lined, the problem of corrosion by AlCl3
is also avoided. Amount of AlCl3 depends on the grade required.
From there, it is sent to vaporizer by gravity. In the vaporizer steam is used to
vaporize liquid tickle. It will become vapor at about 130-150
0
C. Tickle from vaporizer
is hated to about 350
0
C in a Selas furnace. It is lined with a special alloy called
Inconel.
TiCl4 + O TiO2 + 2Cl2
Oxygen from oxygen plant humidified with DI water in U-300 is heated to reaction
temperature (1050
0
C) in Selas make oxygen preheater. TiCl4 and O2 at high
temperature are mixed in the oxidizer where the reaction between TiCl4 and O2 takes
place and TiO2 and Cl2 are formed. Sand blasting is done with a mixture of pure silica
sand (99.9%) and Nitrogen at a high pressure. Now, LPG is burned to maintain
temperature in the oxidizer.

17

Inorder to improve the quality of product, here k+ mixture is added. It is a mixture of
carbosilicate, potassium chloride and silica sand. It does the following functions
thereby improving the quality of the product.
K
+
mixture involves in the exothermic reaction and makes it
endothermic. Thus temperature control is affected.
It improves white color of the pigment.
It also prevents the agglomeration of TiO2.

The product mixture TiO2 and Cl2 is carried forward through a DI water cooled
reactor cooling tubes, to pigment separators where pigment is separated and dumped
to pretreatment sump for slurrying. The Cl2 gas leaving the separator is further
processed to free it from TiO2 dust, TiCl4, HCl etc. It is then given to bag filter,
chiller, H2SO4 scrubber, compressor etc. and sent back to U -200 for further reaction
with rutile and coke.
The pigment slurry is then classified to remove sand and pumped to slurry storage
tanks. From these tanks, the slurry which is the product of oxidation section (U-300)
is pumped to finishing section (U-400) for treatment to produce pigment product.









18

SURFACE TREATMENT AND PIGMENT FINISHING
SECTION

The finished titanium dioxide pigment is produced in this section of the plant. The
raw pigment produced in the Oxidation section in slurry form containing sand is the
main feed to the finishing section. Here the raw pigment is treated with chemicals and
size reduced to impart certain qualities and properties apart from removing all traces
of sand. The finishing section U-400 is the final process section divided into the
following subsections.
Sand milling
Treatment
Filtration and Drying
Micronisation and Cooling
Product Bagging
A number of treating chemicals are added here. The micronized pigment will have
extremely small particle sizes averaging about 0.2 microns. The optimum particle size
of TiO2 pigment is 0.28 microns which is obtained by micronizing the filtered,
washed and dried pigment particles. The micronized product is bagged in paper bags
of 25kg capacity
Sand milling and Classification
Pigment slurry from storage tank is pumped to trash screen where sand and trash are
removed. The screened slurry flows to tank by gravity. From this tank slurry is
pumped to sand mill for releasing absorbed gases like TiCl4 and O2. Sand milled
slurry is pumped to the grits classifier and to vibrating screen to screen out the grits
and sand. Screened slurry is pumped to product classifier. Product classifier separates
5 micron particles and overflow goes to treatment feed tank.
Treatment
In treatment, various chemicals such as sodium silicate, sodium aluminate etc. are
added which when neutralized with caustic soda or sulphuric acid from hydrous

19

oxides. Treatment is done in F-415 A or B tank on batch basis which is provided with
steam sparger and agitator having two speeds. Using the pumps required quantity of
raw slurry is pumped to treatment tank. The treatment chemicals from U-500 are
connected to F-415 A or B tank. Required quantity of chemicals can be set in the flow
totalizer. After batch treatment is completed, the whole contents are transferred to F-
418 tank.
Filtration and Drying
Treated slurry is pumped to filter feed tanks. From this tank, slurry is fed to first
stage filter. Cake is formed on the filter drum which is washed by spraying hot water
through nozzle. The cake is discharged to re-pulper. From the re-pulper, slurry goes to
storage tank by gravity flow. It is pumped to second stage filter and after washing and
re-pulping slurry goes to F-424 tank. Pigment slurry is pumped to de-watering filter.
The cake from the dewatering filter is allowed to fall into extruder in which pigment
cake changes into macroni shape which drops into the tunnel dryer conveyer. This is
carried into the drying chamber by conveyer. At this stage the moisture content will
be less than 1% and organic additives are sprayed at the discharge of the conveyer.
This is now conveyed through bucket elevator and screw conveyer and stored in feed
bin.
Micronisation and Condensate Cooling
Dried pigment is micronized in the Micronisation section. This is to reduce the
particle size to 0.28 microns. Superheated steam is used as the grinding medium.
Macroni from the feed bin is fed to screw feeder, which feeds macroni into microniser
at an adjusted rate. The pigment is injected into the microniser chamber by a high
pressure steam ejector. Superheated steam which passes through the nozzles of the
microniser attains supersonic velocity. At this velocity pigment particles collide with
each other and particle size get reduced. The steam escapes to a condenser or scrubber
and micronized pigment particles are cooled and conveyed by low pressure air to a
secondary cyclone and from there to product bin. The steam and non-condensable
gases are drawn away through a fine scrubber and venturi scrubber by a vacuum
pump to atmosphere. The slurry flows to surge tank from where it is recycled back by
pumping through a heat exchanger.

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Product bagging
The hot micronized product is cooled conveyed by low pressure air. The finished
pigment product is bagged in paper bags and stored in the pigment storage building.




















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DIFFERENT GRADES OF TiO2 PIGMENT

At present, KMML produces 7 grades of rutile grade TiO2 pigments
KEMOX RC 800
KEMOX RC 800 is low oil absorption, medium durable, and alumina treated Rutile
pigment produced by chloride process. It has high gloss producing properties for
interior trade sales paint and industrial coatings. It exhibits high brightness and
excellent tint strength in gloss and semi-gloss enamels.It is recommended for printing
inks, high gloss coating, industrial coatings, low abrasivity coatings, pigment for
letterpress gravure, polyamide etc. and exterior applications where maximum chalk
resistance is not required.
KEMOX RC 800 PG
KEMOX RC 800 PG is a low oil absorption, medium durable, alumina treated and
plastic grade rutile pigment produced by chloride process. It has high tint strength and
excellent dispersion property. It exhibits comparatively low abrasivity. It finds
application in plates requiring a blue white high dispersion TiO2. Other areas of
application are powder coatings, polyethylene films and vinyl sheet goods. It is used
in most other common plastic applications.
KEMOX RC 822
KEMOX RC 822 is an excellent pigment for paints, exterior and interior applications
in residential and architectural finishing, plastics, paper and printing inks.
KEMOX RC 804
KEMOX RC 804 is used for brilliant white color plastics or color concentrates

KEMOX RC 802
KEMOX RC 802 is a multipurpose superior performance rutile TiO2 pigment
manufactured by chloride process. It has been surface treated with alumina and silica.
KEMOX RC 802 has good capacity and weathering property. It has good gloss and is

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easily dispersible. It is intended for both exterior and interior applications. This is
recommended for architectural and industrial paints - both solvent and water based.

KEMOX RC 813
KEMOX RC 813 is a solvent based pigment.

KEMOX RC 808
KEMOX RC 808 is a universal grade pigment suitable for multiple uses especially for
automotive.

















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UTILITIES

Utility department have the following sections:
1. Boiler plant
2. Water treatment plant
3. Air compressor station
4. Effluent pumping station
5. Furnace oil receipt storage & transferring section
6. Brick making plan

1. Boiler Plant
The boiler house is equipped with two water tube boilers and one fire tube boiler for
supplying steam to production plant
Water tube boiler (K463 and K 464)
Make : ISGEC JOHN CULCUTTA
Fuel : Furnace oil
Rating : 33T/hr.
Working pressure : 24Kg/cm
2
Total heating surface : 1727M
2
The boiler is steel cased, thin wall two-drum integral type water tube boiler with
natural circulation and balanced draft. The exit Flue gas from boiler passes through
economizer and outlet gases into atmospheres through chimney by means of ID fans.

After de- aeration the feed water is supplied to the steam drum through economizer
using multistage feed pump. The economizer is of through integral bare type parallel
tubes for picks up the heat from the flue gas. Water in the steam drum is circulated to
the mud drum via main bank tubes, from the mud drum it is distributed to evaporator

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main bank tubes and rest to the combustion chamber wall type via feeder pipes and
manifold.
A steam /water mixture is returned by natural circulation to the steam drum. This is
fitted with internal baffles and cyclone separators for separating steam water mixture
then the steam is purified by passing through scrubber box mounted on the top of the
cyclone. From the steam drum, saturated steam is conveyed to saturate collecting
header and distributed to the production plants via common distribution header.
Part of the steam from the steam drum goes to super heater. The superheated coils are
suspended in the horizontal draught between combustion chamber and the heat
recovery surfaces. There are 15 coils and finally collected in super-heated collecting
header and distributed to U-400 via common distribution header.
A)
B) Fire tube boiler (K 462)
Type : Horizontal smoke tube, 3 pass
Make : M/s Wester Works Limited, Bombay
Evaporation rate : 9T/Hr.
Max Working pressure : 19Kg/cm
2
g
Fuel : Furnace oil


2. Water treatment plant
The sour water is Tube wells; and there are 7 tube wells with a draw capacity
100m
3
/hr. each. The plant has been designed to produce 560 m
3
/hr. filtered water.
Process of treatment is aeration, flocculation, clarification and filtration.
Aeration of raw water to convert iron from dissolved ferrous state to insoluble ferric
state. The aerated water after lime addition flows into a chute and then enters into
radial flow clarifier for flocculation and subsequent clarification. The effluent from

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the clarifier flows to the rapid gravity filters for filtration. The filtered water is
collected in a concrete reservoir. Filtered water is drawn from the filtered water
storage tank with the help of centrifugal pumps and supplying to different plants,
overhead tank and DM unit.
Five cooling water pumps are used supplying to circulate cooling water and 2 cooling
towers are provided for cooling the hot water. The hot water coming from various
plants sent through the vertical cross flow cooling tower cells and cooled water is
collected in the cold sump.
There is also a demineralization plant to produce DM water; it is used in U400, U300
and boiler plant. The DM water plant consists of 3 strong acid cation exchangers, 3
strong base anion exchangers, degasser tank, degasser pumps, degasser blower, DM
water pumps, DM water tank, and acid and alkali storage tanks with connected pipe
lines.
There is a fire and drinking water supply network in the factory. The whole plants are
connected with fire and drinking water line to meet the sanitary requirements as well
as for drinking purpose and firefighting. The fire and drinking water supply and
emergency water to U-300& DG is provided from the overhead tank.
As a part of welfare activities, KMML is supplying drinking water to local people
around KMML through 27 lines and 60 km length pipeline from my drinking water
lines. The duration of water supply to locals is 3 Hrs. per day. This network
supplying about 500m
3
water to more than 10,000 beneficiaries.

3. Air compressor station
Operating of air compressors, driers and supply wet air and dry air to various plants
as per their requirements. There are 5 KG Khosala, two stage twin cylinder double
acting compressors each 45.44 NM
3
/Min capacity, 3 air receivers, 3 air driers each 75
NM
3
/Min Capacity at a pressure of 10Kg/cm
2
and connected interplant piping.



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4. Effluent pumping station
This is for pumping of treated effluent in the polishing pond to sea. Pumping of
Effluents from various plants after neutralization is collected in settling pond and after
settling, the effluent water is collected in the polishing pond by overflow. There is a
Galigher pump with 280m
3
/hr. capacity and connected pipelines for about 1.5 km.
This is pumped out to sea if pH value is in the range 5.5 to 9. All statutory rules and
regulations are maintained while doing the operation.
As the old effluent pond was almost filled, from 2008 august they had switched over
to the old system to the new effluent ETP sludge pond. There are two vertical
Galigher pump having capacity of 100M
3
/hr. each and the discharge connected to the
old sea pumping line.
Also from December- 2009 they have commissioned supernatant water from treated
effluent neutralization system and about 50M
3
/hr. water is consuming from this water
for their process use in connection with the Zero discharge effluent system
5. Furnace oil receipt storage & transferring section
The main functions are receipt of Furnace Oil, handling, storage and delivery to the
user plants as per their request. They have two 1000KL capacity fuel oil tank, 3
transferring pump of 1000LPM capacity and two unloading pump with 340LPM
capacity each. After weighment and dip checking the oil tanker from central shores
will reach to furnace oil storage area and unloaded to oil tanks and final dip will be
taken and manage the stock. Operator in utility section will pump the furnace oil as
per the requirements of the various plants like IBP, ARP and Boiler.
6. Brick making plant
Iron oxide brick is the byproduct of KMML, using the raw materials are iron oxide
collected from iron oxide, waste sand from MS plant, waste silica sand from U300,
cement, lime and sodium silicate. They have two brick making plant with design
capacity 1200/hr. each. Contract persons with close supervision of utility department
carry out all operational functions. After curing these bricks are supplied for
construction purposes in KMML


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