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| CSIRO | SOLVE | Issue 1 Nov 04 | |
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LIGHT METALS
Chasing the Titanium Prize
By Tony Kaye
It is hailed as a miracle metal, but producing titanium comes at a high cost. Australia is among the front-runners in the race for a cheaper production process. For Steve Yarrow, and many thousands of people like him around the world, the high-tech metal titanium is a modernday miracle material. Surgeons implanted a titanium pin into Mr Yarrow’s hip two years ago after he slipped and fell in a driveway, breaking his hip. Without titanium, Mr Yarrow’s medical options would have been substantially limited because no other substance can provide the same strength and durability in the treatment of medical injuries involving broken bones.
Titanium’s high strength, low weight and total resistance to corrosion make it bio-compatible, which puts the metal in high demand across the medical sector for use in bone reconstruction and joint replacements. But titanium is extremely costly and difficult to produce, meaning its usage to date has largely been confined to high-technology areas such as these human joint replacements, and aerospace industries. So today scientists and engineers from all over the world are racing to change that – and they are racing for a multi-billion dollar prize. The good news is that Australia is emerging as one of the front-runners through a concerted R&D effort to turn the country’s abundant raw mineral deposits into a $300 billion titanium metal industry. The titanium team from the Light Metals Flagship, an Australia-wide collaborative research initiative led by CSIRO, is testing a number of advanced processes that aim to halve the cost of producing titanium, which is as strong as steel but about half the weight – and more recyclable than many other metals.This will open titanium to the full range of end uses for a strong, light, non-corrosive, metal. The Flagship team are also working on cutting the costs of manufacturing products from titanium in half. Ironically, given the limited use of titanium so far, it is not a rare metal, but does present hurdles because of the complexity of the extraction process, difficulty of melting, and problems in fabrication and machining. It is the fourth most abundant structural metal in the earth and the ninth most abundant chemical element. Australia has one of the largest known economic reserves of ilmenite and rutile, the primary minerals used to produce titanium, with large deposits in Western Australia and others in the Murray-Darling Basin in NSW, Victoria and South Australia. The industrial value of the raw mineral deposits already discovered in Australia’s lower Murray Basin is estimated to be about $13 billion, but if manufactured into titanium metal the commercial value would be in the order of hundreds of billions of dollars. Not surprisingly, the effort to find an alternative titanium process is a serious global contest. The first organisation over the line in terms of developing a cost-effective and easier method would stand to win substantial contracts. Australia, through the Light Metals Flagship, is competing against similar R&D endeavours in the US, Britain and Japan, with around 16 projects currently underway around the globe.The US-based Defence Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) has involvement in a number of projects, however the Flagship team is currently operating independently. Given the commercial sensitivities, all those in the race are closely guarding their technologies. But CSIRO believes it has made a major breakthrough, which if taken to a commercial level would potentially revolutionise global industry by making titanium readily available to a whole new spectrum of industries including carmakers and builders, and in the water, chemical and marine sectors. Dr Raj Rajakumar, Acting Program Director of the Light Metals Flagship, confirmed that Australia was well placed in terms of researching a new method of making titanium at a much lower cost than the existing Kroll process, which is slow, complex and involves many steps. CSIRO’s TiRO™ process uses “fluidised bed” technology that involves the high-temperature conversion of titanium tetrachloride, and has been able to produce titanium powder quickly and at a much lower cost. “As a result of our studies and experimental work we have really focused on one option at the moment, and that process is getting to the end of the proof of concept stage,” Dr Rajakumar said. “It is almost ready to go to what we call the proof of system stage.” Processes being explored elsewhere involve electrolysis, using titanium dioxide as the feedstock. However previous attempts at ‘electrowinning’ of titanium have proven difficult. Dr Rajakumar said it is too early to say which of the new technologies will be successful, but is confident the Flagship is on the right track. “CSIRO is looking at the whole value-chain for titanium.We believe it is possible to achieve cost reductions along the entire value-chain from the production and processing of the mineral sands through to the manufacturing of titanium and titanium products.” Dr Rajakumar said commercial partnerships with industry would be crucial to achieving these goals. BHP Billiton is one industry player keenly monitoring developments in titanium production technology. It has a 50 per cent stake in South Africa’s Richards Bay Minerals, which provides about one quarter of the market for titanium dioxide feedstock, and has a large under-developed mineral sands deposit in Mozambique it is currently evaluating for development. “BHP Billiton is conducting research and development on low-cost titanium metal production,” says Dr Megan Clark,Vice President,Technology. “BHP Billiton believes that lighter, stronger metals are going to be in increasing demand. As the cost of some of these metals, such as titanium, benefit from lower cost production technology we see higher volume markets such as the automotive market emerging. In addition, we see an upturn in the aerospace market and increasing demand for titanium in industrial applications.” Dr Grant Wellwood, Project Leader of the TiRO™ team, agrees that halving the cost of production, which is the aim, would make titanium a much more commonly used metal. “If you could make titanium a lot cheaper it would go into cars and would reduce pollution,” he said. “It is easy to recycle and it is a very light metal. It has a lot of things going for it except the price.” “Australia has a long history of minerals development and CSIRO has a long history of taking developments from concept through to production,” he said. “The prospect of a multi-billion dollar titanium industry in Australia is exciting and definitely achievable.” “We have a lot of expertise on how to process titanium here, so if you can make it cheaper it opens up a lot of doors.The potential for economic growth and new market opportunities is enormous – we could soon be participating in a manufacturing revolution across areas as diverse as the marine, transport and building construction industries.” For further information contact: |
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