Abstract:
Titanium is currently used as an advanced structural material for its high strength, low density, and excellent corrosion resistance. However, in our daily lives, people are not familiar with titanium metal because we rarely use it. The worldwide annual production of titanium metal is less than 1/30 of that of titanium oxide (TiO2). This is very unnatural considering the excellent properties and abundant reserves of titanium. The limitation of titanium application derives from its high cost. In this paper, the metallurgical process of titanium was analyzed, and compared with the processes of iron and aluminum. The details of the production cost of the current metallurgical process were analyzed. New titanium metallurgical processes were reviewed, and the possibility of reducing the production cost was discussed. The energy consumption and operation cost of titanium metallurgical process will be remarkably reduced through the combination of the carbon thermoreduction and molten salt electrolysis, using ilmenite (FeTiO3) as the raw material. The main challenges for scaling up of the USTB process are preparation of large size anode TiCxO1−x and continuous operation of large size electrolysis cell.
