Abstract: A process for the chlorination of a material containing iron and titanium chemically combined with oxygen, comprising feeding the material to be chlorinated, in particulate solid form, into a reaction bed of solids containing ferrous chloride, and reacting it within that bed, at a temperature below the melting point of ferrous chloride, with a controlled amount of chlorine in the presence of sulphur in free or combined form, to produce solid ferrous chloride, titanium chloride, which is volatile at a temperature of operation, and sulphur dioxide, as the principal products of the process.

Abstract: The invention relates to the recovery of chlorine values from iron chloride by-produced from the chlorination of a titaniferous material containing more than 5% by weight iron oxide, and particularly from the carbo-chlorination of ilmenite, which, for example, can be the first stage in the so-called chloride route to form titanium dioxide pigment.The iron chloride which may be ferric chloride or ferrous chloride is subjected to a combination of reduction and oxidation reactions. In the reduction reaction, ferric chloride is dechlorinated to ferrous chloride by a reducing agent suitable for producing a chloride compound for recycle to the chlorination process or for sale and in the oxidation reaction ferrous chloride is oxidized to ferric oxide and ferric chloride, the ferric chloride being recycled to the reduction reaction.