Development of lining materials for reactor vessel used in the CSIR titanium process

Abstract

The CSIR Titanium powder process is a high temperature’ molten salt/alkali metal titanium production process. The aim of this process is to produce titanium powder of high purity and quality that meets the specifications for commercially-pure powder. The quality of CSIR Ti-powder produced to date shows in general that there are challenges when it comes to meeting this requirement. Two of the main challenges is the reagents used employed in the process and by-products formed which are highly corrosive. These corrosive agents promote corrosion of the reactor with the corrosion product then being introduced as impurities in the titanium powder. A project to investigate lining materials to protect the vessel from corrosion and preserve product quality and purity was thus initiated. This article gives an in-depth insight into the corrosion resistance properties of different metals that can be investigated as a potential lining material in molten lithium and molten lithium chloride environment.