The Ultrasep, being transported and installed at Tiwest’s titanium dioxide production plant at Kwinana, Western Australia.

BATEMAN supplied an Ultrasep thickener to the Tiwest titanium dioxide production plant at Kwinana, Western Australia. Tiwest recently commissioned a plant to recover valuable synthetic rutile in the slurry from the chlorinator discharge at the plant. Previously this synthetic rutile was discharged to a filtration-based tailings-recovery system and disposed of under controlled conditions off-site. Tiwest is a Kerr McGee and Ticor joint venture, the former being a major worldwide supplier of titanium dioxide pigment.

A hydroclassifier, rather than a conventional flocculated thickener, was preferred to recover the synthetic rutile, as a flocculant would have included unwanted fines and contaminated the recovered rutile slurry. Tiwest carried out extensive investigations into conventional hydroclassifiers before being introduced to the Bateman Ultrasep thickener.

On-site tests using a standard Ultrasep pilot plant enabled Tiwest to determine that the Ultrasep could control the titanium recovery and the particle size cut point. Titanium recoveries in the range of 40 to 52 % were achieved with underflow densities of up to 59 %. A cost-benefit analysis for a range of different Ultrasep sizes was performed and a 5 m diameter unit selected for the job.

Tiwest’s Ultrasep was constructed using carbon steel and all wetted surfaces were lined with chemical-resistant rubber to cope with the extremely corrosive slurry that has a low pH and a high chloride content.

As an Ultrasep is generally half the diameter of a conventional thickener or hydroclassifier of the same duty, the unit could be completely assembled in the workshop and all bolted connections rubber lined and spark tested before being transported to site in one piece. No on-site welding and installation of the rubber lining was therefore required, affording significant savings compared to conventional thickening systems. The small footprint was also an important advantage because of the restricted space available – the Ultrasep occupies only a quarter of the area of alternative thickeners.

Taking only two hours to erect on prepared foundations when it was delivered, the Ultrasep was commissioned upon completion of the synthetic-rutile recovery plant. Brian Woodward, Tiwest Technical Specialist, who developed the process, reports that it has been operating reliably with absolutely no problems, performing exactly as predicted.

For your Bateman Ultrasep needs, contact Craig Gilbert, Manager, Processing Technologies, on +27-11-201-2300 or email engtech@batemanengineering.com.

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