Review—The Emerging Technologies for Producing Low-Cost Titanium

Abstract

This paper presents a thorough review of various technologies to obtain titanium and its alloys and their discussion concerning their merits and demerits. Titanium and its alloys are ideal advanced structural materials because of their excellent properties such as high corrosion resistance, exceptional strength-to-weight ratio, bio-compatible, non-magnetic and mechanical properties. As a result, such materials are served extensively for several engineering applications that include wind turbines, auto industries, biomedical implants, aerospace industry, marine structures, and many others. However, the low yield and higher cost production of the current employed energy-intensive Kroll process restricts the widespread use of titanium and its alloys. Numerous alternative extraction processes have been developed during the last few decades to produce titanium and its alloys in a more accessible and cost-effective way. Amid growing demand for titanium in the market, it is necessary to consider the impact of technological innovations that can reduce titanium production cost. Recent research and developments on the electrochemical reduction method of titanium production from molten salts or ionic liquids have shown promising results. This paper reviews the developments on titanium production and its alloys by various techniques, including but not limited to molten salt electrolysis processes, such as the FFC-Cambridge process, the OS process, the USTB process, and ionic-liquid electrolysis.

The Conversion of Calcium-Containing Phases and Their Separation with NaCl in Molten Salt Chlorinated Slags at High Temperature

“…Titanium is known as a strategic metal and also as the "third metal" [1,2]. Titanium sponge and titanium dioxide chloride are key strategic materials that support the development of modern society [3][4][5].…”

Low-Cost Preparation Technologies for Titanium Alloys: A Review

“…After this problem was recognized, researchers continued to develop several new processes to reduce the cost of titanium feedstock, such as the Fray-Farthing-Chen (FFC) process [33], the Armstrong process [34], the Ono and Suzuki (OS) process [35], etc. The development of new processes for the production of titanium has been reviewed by researchers [36,37]. This section will categorize all processes and then provide a brief overview and analysis.…”

“…These new processes can be divided into two categories according to the metallurgical process: thermochemical processes and electrochemical processes. A summary of the various titanium production processes is shown in To date, the vast majority of the world's titanium is produced by the Kroll process, which involves chlorination of titanium ore, purification of TiCl 4 , magnesiothermic reduction, vacuum distillation, and electrolytic regeneration of Mg and Cl 2 [36]. We all know that the reduction of highly valence titanium compounds is a stepwise process.…”

“…On the other hand, to ensure magnesium utilization leads to an increase of low valent titanium compounds in the final product and a longer production cycle, which requires a choice between production efficiency, energy consumption and product quality. Overall, the disadvantages of Kroll process, including the expensive reducing agent Mg, long process route, low production efficiency, and high energy consumption (71.61 kWh/kg), resulted in a high price of $7.4-$10.3 per kg for titanium [4,36]. The TiRO™ process [38], the vapor-phase reduction process [39], and the CSIR-Ti process [40] can all be seen as improvements of the Kroll process, and the Armstrom process [34] can be seen as an improvement of the Hunter process, using the same precursors and reductants, and they all attempt to develop a continuous production process with low energy consumption.…”

Development of a technology to produce titanium powder with a low carbon footprint

“…The main obstacle to the wider use of titanium alloys is the complexity of the technology of obtaining primary titanium from the feedstock with the subsequent production of titanium alloys and powders [17][18][19].…”