A new method of titanium smelting will bring a new breakthrough in raw material preparation technology

People engaged in titanium production and manufacturing know that after the  "WJ. Kroll" invented the magnesium thermal reduction method to produce sponge titanium in 1940, the Kroll production process: titanium ore - electric furnace smelting to produce high titanium slag - chlorination to produce titanium tetrachloride - magnesium reduction + distillation to produce sponge titanium has been widely used for more than 80 years. The magnesium reduction distillation process for Kroll's production of sponge titanium is a process with high energy consumption and high carbon dioxide emission. 

For many years, people have been studying and exploring a better new process to reduce energy consumption, carbon emission and low-cost sponge titanium production process. Scientists have tried many new technological methods in the field of titanium smelting, but they have not effectively solved the practical problems such as high energy consumption, high pollution and high cost in the production of titanium raw materials. At present, no new titanium smelting technology has been effectively popularized and applied.

Electrodeposition of dendritic titanium crystals
Recently, according to Japan's DONGBANG titanium report, the United States universal achemetal titanium cooperated with Toho titanium to avoid the addition of carbon in titanium ore refining reaction through new process and technical methods, so as to solve the emission of greenhouse gas carbon dioxide in the process of process preparation, and explore a new titanium smelting extraction method, which will bring a new breakthrough in titanium raw material preparation technology. It is expected to realize commercial application.

Kroll titanium metal extraction method is to place powdered Ti02 in the smelting furnace, inject chlorine and reducing agent coal coke, heat it to about 1000 ℃ to realize chemical reaction to prepare liquid titanium tetrachloride, and the reaction produces a large amount of carbon dioxide gas. This process will produce about 10 tons of carbon dioxide gas per ton of metal titanium. In the magnesium reduction distillation process, a large amount of electric energy will be consumed. The production of one ton of sponge titanium needs about 20000 ~ 30000 kwh. Moreover, it is difficult to remove impurities in titanium metal in the distillation reduction process, resulting in high pollution, high energy consumption and High cost and many other disadvantages.

The new titanium smelting and extraction process studied by UAT company is to add calcium fluoride and aluminum to powdered Ti02, the mixture will undergo severe aluminothermic reduction reaction in the smelting furnace, the alumina and calcium fluoride after combustion reaction are easy to be separated, then the metal titanium is dissolved into the electrolyte by electrolysis, and then a solid dendritic titanium metal deposit is formed on the electrode surface. Titanium was obtained by water washing or vacuum separation. The titanium prepared by this method has low impurity content and better impurity removal effect than Kroll's. There is no carbon element in this process, which solves the massive emission of carbon dioxide in the production process, the process method is more environmentally friendly, and the power consumption of this process is about 70% lower than that of Kroll. The titanium metal produced by electrolytic deposition in production can be really used to produce titanium powder or fiber sintered porous sheet. The new technology effectively solves the high energy consumption and high pollution in the preparation of titanium raw materials, and can obtain titanium raw materials with higher purity and lower cost.

On the basis of laboratory research, Toho titanium company of Japan built a pilot plant for this new extraction technology in 2021, including electrolytic deposition cells of different sizes, optimized and improved the electrolytic purification process in the pilot production test, and successfully mass produced titanium metal with higher purity and lower oxygen content than Kroll process, This is the first successful step for the commercial application of new technology.