Grants and Contributions:

Grant or Award spanning more than one fiscal year (2017-2018 to 2018-2019).

Pigment production has thermal treatment stages that can substituted by microwave radiation such asx000D
dewatering, preheating and calcination. In dewatering of Nanoparticle slurry, performances of both filtrationx000D
and thickening are affected negatively. Nanoparticles reduce performance or block porous space inside filterx000D
cloth. Therefore, filtration should be done as a batch process with low performance. Also, nanoparticles causex000D
serious problems for thickening operation including slow particle settling, increase in residence time, andx000D
bigger flocculant consumption. For a pigment slurry, low power microwave treatment can be used as ax000D
substitute for filtration, and work with or without thickener. Microwave application for calcination is morex000D
complicated compared to dewatering, because it is expected to generate higher temperatures as well as improvex000D
physical phase transformation. This research work will focus on microwave-assisted dewatering andx000D
calcination. Argex Titanium Incorporated, is developing a novel technology for producing titanium oxidex000D
pigment. Preheating, dewatering and calcination stages are part of the production line. Therefore,x000D
microwave-assisted heating can be used for these preheating and dewatering and calcination. Developing thisx000D
novel microwave-assisted thermal treatment technique will lead to less energy consumption, better control onx000D
the process and higher process efficiency for Canadian pigment industry the advantages of which will increasex000D
the profitability of the pigment plant.