Despite over ten years of research into the low-cost electrowinning of titanium direct from the oxide, the reduction sequence of TiO 2 pellets in molten CaCl 2 has been the subject of debate, particularly as the reduction pathway has been inferred from ex-situ studies. Here, for the first time white beam synchrotron X-ray diffraction is used to characterize the phases that form, in-situ during reduction and with ∼100 µm spatial resolution. It is found that TiO 2 becomes sub-stoichiometric very early in reduction facilitating the ionic conduction of oxygen ions, that CaTiO 3 persists to nearly the end of the process and that, finally, CaO forms just before completion of the process. The method is quite generally applicable to the in-situ study of industrial chemical processes. Implications for the industrial scale-up of this method for the low-cost production of titanium are drawn.

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