D. Hildenbrand, A. Sanjurjo, K. Lau, SRI International, Menlo Park, CA
Summary: SRI International (SRI), in partnership with a large chemical manufacturer, and under funding from DARPA, is developing a new process to produce high-purity, dense titanium and titanium alloy pellets at low cost. The new process is based on the direct reduction of TiCl4 (and other volatile metal halides) by H2 in a fluidized bed reactor.
Discrepancies between predictions based on equilibrium thermodynamic and experimental results led us to the conclusion that some of the available thermochemical data in the literature may not be accurate. Based on a critical analysis of the literature and experimental data obtained at SRI by high-temperature mass spectrometry, we are proposing a new set of coherent data for the Ti-Cl-H system. We then used this new data to predict equilibrium compositions and yields for Ti deposition from TiCl4 by H2 reduction. The new thermochemical predictions are in good agreement with experimental results.
