A high-efficiency hydrocyclone designed by response surface methodology for acid hydrolysis residue recycling

A high-efficiency hydrocyclone was designed by response surface methodology to evaluate the recycling of acid hydrolysis residues from titanium dioxide (TiO2) production as a study case. TiO2 is an important product and the world's best white pigment. During its production from ilmenite (FeTiO3) by the sulphuric acid method, the incomplete reaction produces large amounts of residue, which also contain unreacted ilmenite. Large amounts of residue are generally accumulated without any treatment. Hydrocycloneuse is regarded as a method for separating and recovering chemicals from process residues by which the unreacted components can be recycled efficiently. However, hydrocyclones designed by conventional procedures may have some limitations regarding classification sharpness. In this paper, numerical experiments and laboratory tests were performed to evaluate the classification sharpness of various hydrocyclone designs. Response surface methodology was used to optimize hydrocyclones with ...