In chemical production, equipment corrosion remains a significant challenge. Enormous quantities of steel (1797, 10.00, 0.56%) are wasted annually due to corrosion. In China, the main cause of equipment damage in the chemical industry is corrosion, leading to lifespans as short as 1-2 months for some equipment. Titanium demonstrates outstanding performance in corrosion resistance, wear resistance, and erosion resistance. Although initial investment in titanium equipment is high, its lifespan exceeds that of carbon steel, stainless steel, and cast iron equipment by several times, even tens of times. Due to its low density, high strength, and excellent corrosion resistance, titanium has successfully addressed severe corrosion issues in chemical production, becoming highly favored and propelling a leap in anti-corrosion technology for the chemical industry.
The chemical industry is among the earliest and largest users of titanium in China’s civilian industry. Over the past decade, the titanium usage in the chemical industry in China equals the combined titanium production of 2009 and 2010.
Applications of Titanium in the Chemical Industry
1. Chlor-Alkali Industry
Titanium has been predominantly used in the chlor-alkali industry, accounting for nearly a quarter of its total mass, involving the production of chlorine, chlorates, pesticides, and bleaching powder. Applications range from metallic anodes in electrolytic cells to ion-exchange membrane electrolytic cells, anode solution pumps, coiled wet chlorine coolers, chlorine waste water dechlorination towers, chlorine gas cooling scrubbers, refined brine preheaters, vacuum dechlorination pumps, and valves, among others.
2. Soda Ash Industry
In soda ash production, titanium is mainly used in crystallization external coolers, distillation tower top ammonia condensers, ammonium chloride mother liquor heaters, plate heat exchangers, umbrella plate heat exchangers, carbonation tower cooling pipes, carbon dioxide turbine compressor impellers, and alkali solution pumps, among others.
3. Vacuum Salt Industry
Titanium ammonia evaporators, preheaters, precoolers, flanges, tube sheets, and pump casings.
4. Petrochemical Fiber Industry
In the petrochemical fiber industry, some enterprises producing polyester, nylon, and acrylic fibers have utilized titanium equipment. The application of titanium equipment has played a significant role in safety, stable and continuous production, product quality improvement, prevention of premature corrosion failure of stainless steel, extension of equipment lifespan, reduction of shutdowns and maintenance, and overall economic benefits.
5. Fine Chemical Industry
Titanium is crucial in producing propylene oxide (PO), an industry involving strong corrosive media. Equipment pipelines made of materials like carbon steel, Al, Cu, Ni, and stainless steel are vulnerable to corrosion under these conditions. Only titanium proves ideal as a corrosion-resistant material.
6. Inorganic Salt Industry
Inorganic salt production includes chlorates and potassium salts. The rapid development of sodium chlorate production in China, with a total production capacity exceeding 1 million tons, significantly utilizes titanium equipment, such as electrolytic cells, titanium anodes, reaction generators, evaporators, etc. Approximately 15 tons of titanium is needed for every 10,000 tons of sodium chlorate.
7. Other Industries
Titanium is used in titanium dioxide production for thin film concentrators, calcination kiln feed pipes, centrifuge distribution plates, among others. In urea production, titanium is used for urea synthesis tower linings, ammonia vapor stripping towers, general decomposition tower heaters, and methanol pump inlets and outlets, among others. Additionally, in dye production, titanium is used in serpentube heat exchangers, absorption towers, purification tower nozzles, fans, water-ring vacuum pumps, and filters, among other applications. In nitric acid production, titanium is utilized in nitric acid evaporators, nitrogen oxide tail gas preheaters, nitric acid steam preheaters, gas scrubbers, rapid coolers, condensers, turbine blowers, pumps, valves, and pipelines, among others.