> Unfortunately, producing ultrapure titanium is significantly more expensive than manufacturing steel (an iron alloy) and aluminum, owing to the substantial use of energy and resources in preparing high-purity titanium. Developing a cheap, easy way to prepare it—and facilitate product development for industry and common consumers—is the problem the researchers aimed to address.
Any comments from someone in the metals industry? The paper shows this process being done at lab scale. It needs to be scaled up to steel mill size. How hard does that look?
From someone in the product design/manufacturing space - this wouldn't change much. The problem with titanium isn't the material cost (which is expensive, but could be justified in a variety of scenarios) but rather everything else about it. Its an absolute pain in the rear to work with, your manufacturing base is tiny, specialized equipment and tooling is needed, it makes tiny little incendiary devices when being cut, etc.
Its cool, and it has plenty of applications where it is the only choice. But those applications already use it, and lowering the material cost isn't going to make more designers decide to just start using it on a whim.
(PS - This could be more useful if titanium 3d printers start becoming more accessible. But again, that's a low volume manufacturing process so the material costs still don't play much into final part cost.)
With lower material costs, more mundane applications might appear, but probably not all that many. 3D printed titanium eyeglass frames are already a thing, though.
Here's three generations of Space-X's Raptor engine.[1] The last one is mostly 3D printed. There are layers of different materials, and one is a titanium layer. Notice how the plumbing was simplified for each generation.
Rocket engines are mostly plumbing. The fuel is used to cool the engine bell before it is used for power. Everything has cooling cavities inside. All that interior geometry is ideal for 3D printing. In the NASA glory days, those things were built by hand welding large numbers of machined pieces into an engine. Look at that Raptor engine on the right. Everything below the pumps is all one big part. No joints, no welds, no brackets, no plumbing fittings. Nice.
From teh Gemini 2.5 Pro AI "expert", with human review:
> For primary titanium production (from ore):
Molten Salt Electrolysis (Direct Electrochemical Deoxygenation, FFC Cambridge, OS processes, etc.) and calciothermic reduction in molten salts
> They aim to [sic.] revolutionize titanium production by moving away from the energy-intensive and environmentally impactful Kroll process, directly reducing TiO
2 and offering the potential for closed-loop systems.
> For recycling titanium scrap and deep deoxidation: Hydrogen plasma arc melting and calcium-based deoxidation techniques (especially electrochemical calcium generation) are highly promising. Hydrogen offers extreme cleanliness, while calcium offers potent deoxidizing power.
...
> Magnesium Hydride Reduction (e.g., University of Utah's reactor)
> Solid-State Reduction (e.g., Metalysis process)
Are there more efficient, sustainable methods of titanium production?
Also,
TIL Ti is a catalyst for CNT carbon nanotube production; and, alloying CNTs with Ti leaves vacancies.
> From teh Gemini 2.5 Pro AI "expert", with human review:
You don't know enough about the subject to answer the question on your own, do you? So your "review" is really just cutting and pasting shit you also don't understand, which may or may not be true.
> Do you have a factual dispute with what I posted?
I don't have nearly enough knowledge or experience in the subject to talk about the factual accuracy of what you posted. The whole point of my comment was, neither do you.
So, to your knowledge there is no factual inconsistency with what I have posted?
You have made an assumption that I didn't review the content that I prepared to post. You have alleged in ignorance and you have disrespectfully harassed without due process.
I did not waste your time with spammy unlabeled AI BS.
I have given my "review search results" time for free; and, in this case too, I have delivered value. You made this a waste of my time. You have caused me loss with such harassment. I have not caused you loss by posting such preliminary research (which checks out).
Did others in this thread identify and share alternative solutions for getting oxygen out of titanium? I believe it was fair to identify and share alternative solutions to the OT which I (re-) posted because this is an unsolved opportunity.
I believe it's fair and advisable to consult and clearly cite AI.
Why would people cite their use of AI? Isn't that what we want?
Which helped solved for the OT problem?
Given such behavior toward me in this forum, I should omit such insightful research (into "efficient and sustainable alternatives") to deny them such advantage.
This was interesting to me and worth spending my personal time on also because removing oxygen from graphene oxide wafers is also a billion dollar idea. Does "hydrogen plasma" solve for deoxidizing that too?
from wiki:
Small amounts of yttrium (0.1 to 0.2%) have been used to reduce the grain sizes of chromium, molybdenum, titanium, and zirconium.[81] Yttrium is used to increase the strength of aluminium and magnesium alloys.[15] The addition of yttrium to alloys generally improves workability, adds resistance to high-temperature recrystallization, and significantly enhances resistance to high-temperature oxidation (see graphite nodule discussion below).[68]
Yttrium can be used to deoxidize vanadium and other non-ferrous metals.[15] Yttria stabilizes the cubic form of zirconia in jewelry.[82]
Yttrium has been studied as a nodulizer in ductile cast iron, forming the graphite into compact nodules instead of flakes to increase ductility and fatigue resistance.[15] Having a high melting point, yttrium oxide is used in some ceramic and glass to impart shock resistance and low thermal expansion properties.[15] Those same properties make such glass useful in camera lenses.[51]
"Direct production of low-oxygen-concentration titanium from molten titanium" (2024) https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-49085-4