The Hunter process purifies titanium using coke, titanium dioxide, chlorine, and sodium. It was successful until the cheaper Kroll process became popular. The process is expensive but has laid the foundation for other purification procedures.
The Hunter process is a metallurgical process used to purify titanium; it was very successful until the 1940s, when the process lost popularity to the less expensive Kroll process. To start the Hunter process, coke, titanium dioxide and chlorine must be collected and heated. Next, sodium is added and the mixture is heated again. When sodium and titanium are heated together, the product is nearly pure titanium. While this process is rarely used in the early 21st century, it has laid the foundation for all other titanium purification procedures.
Three elements are required to begin the Hunter process. They are titanium dioxide, coke and chlorine. Heat is applied to the three so that a chemical reaction occurs which creates titanium tetrachloride. In this reaction, titanium dioxide and chlorine mix and coke is needed as a carbon source to help create this reaction.
While titanium tetrachloride is closer in purity to pure titanium than titanium dioxide, it is still far from being the purest metal. After the initial reaction, sodium is added to the titanium tetrachloride and the two are heated to approximately 1.472° Fahrenheit (800° Celsius). This allows the sodium to work on the titanium tetrachloride to allow for a reaction.
After the metal has cooled, the element left is almost pure titanium. The average grade is approximately 99.9 percent pure, which by many standards is considered pure. This occurs because the heated sodium is able to scavenge other elements attached to the titanium tetrachloride, leaving only the titanium itself.
When titanium was first discovered, it could not be used as a pure substance for one very important reason: it was never pure. Like many other elements, titanium is almost always attached to other elements, and was too attached to these other elements to be of any use. The Hunter process marked the first time pure titanium could be produced and was able to inspire many similar procedures to create similar results.
One major problem with the Hunter process is that it is relatively expensive, especially when compared to the next most commonly used titanium purification method, the Kroll process. While the Hunter method is rarely used, it is considered one of the best methods for mining titanium, so it still finds some use. It is primarily used when a manufacturer needs to extract as much titanium as possible or the titanium is bound to too many other elements to be adequately purified by any other method.
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