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How did you get the titanium in your hand (3)? Important raw material: Sponge titanium!

Sponge titanium plays an extremely important role in the entire titanium industry. It is the main raw material for producing industrial titanium alloys and the source material for titanium materials, titanium powder, and many other titanium components.
In the titanium industry chain, the first step is to beneficiate raw minerals such as ilmenite and rutile to obtain higher grade concentrates. After a series of processing and purification, high-purity titanium dioxide is produced. Then, titanium tetrachloride is generated through processes such as oxidation and reduction of titanium dioxide, and sponge titanium is further obtained as an intermediate product.
In the first two articles, we introduced the process from mineral processing to the preparation of titanium tetrachloride.
Today we will talk about the process of preparing sponge titanium. Note that the magnesium thermal reduction method is the main process for producing sponge titanium, which can be divided into semi process method and full process method.
The production of sponge titanium requires three major processes: chlorination, reduction distillation refining, and electrolysis.
If all three processes are available, it is called the full process method. If only the reduction distillation finishing process is available, it is called the half process method.
The main processes of the entire process are:
① Using petroleum coke (mainly composed of carbon) to reduce titanium slag, and introducing Cl2 for chlorination to form crude TiCl4;
② Obtaining refined TiCl4 through methods such as aluminum powder vanadium removal, hydrogen sulfide vanadium removal, copper wire vanadium removal, and mineral oil vanadium removal;
③ At 800-900 ℃, introduce refined TiCl4 at a certain flow rate to undergo a reduction reaction with electrolytic Mg: TiCl4+2Mg=Ti+2MgCl2;
④ At the reaction temperature, the generated MgCl2 is in liquid form and can be promptly discharged. Under conditions of 900-1000 ℃ and a certain degree of vacuum, residual MgCl2 and excess Mg can be vacuum distilled to obtain pure sponge titanium;
⑤ MgCl2 can be decomposed into Mg and Cl2 through electrolysis process for reuse, with only a small amount of replenishment required for the loss of Mg and Cl2.
The Chinese sponge titanium market can be generally divided into six stages, namely the embryonic period from 1955 to 1959, the start-up period from the 1960s to the 1970s, the oscillation period from 1970 to 1982, the high-speed development period from 1982 to 1990, the oscillation period from 1990 to 2015, and the maturity period from 2015 to 2023.
The Chinese titanium industry began in the 1950s. In November 1955, sponge titanium was successfully produced using magnesium reduction method at the Nonferrous Metal Comprehensive Research Institute of the Ministry of Heavy Industry. In 1958, the sponge titanium industrial test was achieved at Fushun Aluminum Plant, and the first sponge titanium production workshop in China was established. At the same time, the first titanium processing material production test workshop in China was established at Shenyang Nonferrous Metal Processing Plant.
In the 1960s and 1970s, under the unified planning of the country, China successively built more than 10 sponge titanium production units represented by Zunyi Titanium Industry. Zunyi Titanium Industry was one of the key factories and mines in China's third line construction in the 1960s, and was officially established in 1966.
From 1970 to 1982, several sponge titanium enterprises went bankrupt, resulting in a decrease in sponge titanium production. Due to the complex production process and technical difficulties of sponge titanium, as well as the small scale that makes it difficult to resist competition from foreign sponge titanium enterprises, more than 10 sponge titanium enterprises in China have gone bankrupt or gone bankrupt, leaving only Zunyi Titanium Industry and Fushun Titanium Factory. Around 1980, China's sponge titanium production reached 2800 tons. Due to the lack of understanding of titanium metal among most people at that time, the high price of titanium also limited its application. The production of titanium processed materials was only about 200 tons, and the titanium industry was in a difficult situation.
From 1982 to 1990, national policies promoted the production and application of sponge titanium. In July 1982, China established a cross ministerial national titanium application promotion leadership group to specifically coordinate the development of the titanium industry. After the reform and opening up, under the promotion of the State Council, China's titanium industry has developed rapidly, with its application scope constantly expanding and the industry's production scale constantly expanding. However, most of the products are low-end products with relatively low purity, and high-end products mainly rely on imports.
From 1990 to 2015, the downward pressure on the economy led to a shift in the growth trend of sponge titanium. Around 2013, due to the increasing downward pressure on the macro economy and the upgrading and transformation of downstream demand product structure, the Chinese sponge titanium market experienced a significant decline under the effect of supply side structural reform. The capacity utilization rate gradually decreased, and a large amount of production capacity was shut down. In 2015, China's sponge titanium production capacity rapidly decreased to 88000 tons.
After 2015, China's sponge titanium production slowly recovered, and in 2017, China's sponge titanium industry developed rapidly, with production ranking first in the world.
From 2015 to 2023, the domestic production of sponge titanium in China continued to increase from 59000 tons to 218000 tons. At the same time, driven by the demand in industries such as aerospace, marine engineering, high-end chemical (petrochemical, environmental protection, etc.), and military, the structural adjustment of the industry has begun to show results, and the industrial structure has begun to shift from low-end to high-end.

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