Abstract: A metal halide is reduced by reacting it with calcium carbide in a bath in which the calcium carbide is dissolved in a mixture of a halide of at least one alkali metal, specifically sodium, potassium, rubidium and/or cesium, with a halide of at least one alkaline-earth metal, specifically calcium, strontium and/or barium. The desired metal may be one of the aforementioned alkali or alkaline-earth metals, e.g. sodium or magnesium, in which case its halide is one of the constituents of the mixture. Otherwise, a vapor of a halide of the desired metal (e.g. titanium tetrachloride) is bubbled through the bath in order to react with the calcium carbide.

Abstract: A process for the desulfurization or nodularization of a ferrous melt which comprises introducing into the melt at least one reducing composition formed between an element of one of the groups I, II and III of the Periodic Table of elements (except for hydrogen and boron) and at least one element selected from the group which consists of hydrogen, boron, carbon, silicon, nitrogen and phosphate or a combination of one of them with sulfur, and at least one composition reducible by the reducing composition of at least one metal selected from the group which consists of the alkaline metals and the metals of groups II and III of the Periodic Table. The mixture is of a composition within the portion of the phase diagram of the mixture corresponding to a single homogeneous liquid phase in the region of temperatures above the melting point of the alloy to be treated. The treating composition is used in the form of a homogeneous liquid or a substantially homogeneous solid which melts at contact with the alloy.