Application status and prospect of titanium alloy in four fields

Titanium is a kind of material with excellent physical properties and stable chemical properties. Titanium and its alloys have high strength, low specific gravity, and are resistant to seawater corrosion and Marine atmosphere corrosion, which can well meet the requirements of Marine engineering applications. After years of efforts by titanium industry and ocean engineering application researchers, titanium has been widely used in offshore oil and gas development, port construction, coastal power station, seawater desalination, shipbuilding, Marine fisheries and ocean heat conversion. Nowadays, titanium for Marine engineering has become one of the main fields of civil application.

Application status

1. Offshore oil and gas development

Oil is the economic lifeblood of a country. It is estimated that the world has 300 billion tons of recoverable oil resources, of which about 130 billion tons are under the sea. Offshore oil exploitation equipment mainly includes oil production platform and auxiliary equipment, including crude oil cooler, lifting pipe, pump, valve, joint and fixture, etc. These devices are in contact with sulfide, ammonia, chlorine and other media in seawater and crude oil. Because of the excellent corrosion resistance of titanium in these media, the United States used titanium in its oil fields in the early 1970s for offshore oil platform props, as well as for tubular and plate heat exchangers. Titanium tubular heat exchangers use seawater as a cooling medium to cool the high-temperature gas/oil mixture pumped from oil Wells. Titanium plate heat exchanger is also the use of seawater as a cooling medium, the carbon steel heat exchanger cooling crude water cooling.

2. Port construction
Titanium material has a layer of oxide film with a thickness of less than 10nm on its surface. It is very stable in the corrosive environment and has excellent corrosion resistance to air, sea water and Marine environment. It is the raw material that can adapt to various Marine environments most at present.

3. Coastal power station
The comprehensive utilization of sea water is one of the important projects in ocean engineering. Titanium used in coastal power stations is mainly used in condensers.

4. Seawater desalination plant

In seawater desalination, the main application of titanium is the heat transfer tube of the desalination unit.

5. The ship
Titanium and its alloys are corrosion-resistant in sea water and Marine atmosphere, with light specific gravity, high strength, impact resistance, no magnetism, sound permeability and small coefficient of expansion, so they are considered as good ship materials.

6. Marine fisheries
In artificial culture, titanium mesh and titanium tube heat exchanger to maintain a certain seawater temperature are widely used.

7. Ocean thermal energy conversion
The main equipment of temperature difference power generation is evaporator, condensing device and seawater straw, loop, etc., which requires the equipment not only to resist corrosion, but also to resist the corrosion of ammonia and fluorine. Titanium and its alloy not only has good corrosion resistance to seawater, but also to resist the corrosion of ammonia and fluorine, so titanium is the most ideal material.