Scribd
Upload
64 views

Titanium: The Green Metal For The 21st Century: George - Chen@nottingham - Ac.uk

Titanium has the potential to be a more sustainable material for the automotive industry compared to steel due to its lighter weight and corrosion resistance, which could allow for additional hydrogen storage. However, titanium produced via the traditional Kroll process is much more expensive than steel. A new electrolytic process called the FFC Cambridge Process, developed in the past decade, promises to make titanium more affordable and reduce CO2 emissions compared to traditional steel production. This presentation will explain this new process and its scientific principles and their impact on reducing emissions and costs for the metallurgical and automotive industries.

Uploaded by

Hafiezul Hassan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
64 views

Titanium: The Green Metal For The 21st Century: George - Chen@nottingham - Ac.uk

Titanium has the potential to be a more sustainable material for the automotive industry compared to steel due to its lighter weight and corrosion resistance, which could allow for additional hydrogen storage. However, titanium produced via the traditional Kroll process is much more expensive than steel. A new electrolytic process called the FFC Cambridge Process, developed in the past decade, promises to make titanium more affordable and reduce CO2 emissions compared to traditional steel production. This presentation will explain this new process and its scientific principles and their impact on reducing emissions and costs for the metallurgical and automotive industries.

Uploaded by

Hafiezul Hassan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 1

Titanium: The green metal for the 21st century

George Z. Chen

1. Associate Professor and Reader in Electrochemical Technologies


School of Chemical and Environmental Engineering,
University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK

2. Specially Invited Professor in Electrochemistry


College of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences,
Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, P.R. China

Email: [email protected]

On-board hydrogen storage has not yet reached beyond 6 wt%, suggesting a
longer time for commercially viable hydrogen powered vehicles to battle against
global warming. The situation would not have been so constraining if car
manufacturers replaced steel components by titanium ones because both are similarly
strong, but titanium is 40 % lighter (and more corrosion resistant). A lighter titanium
car would allow additional load capacity for the heavy hydrogen storage system.
However, titanium (~$8000/tonne-sponge from the Kroll Process) is far more
expensive than steels (~$150/tonne-steel from carbothermic reduction with CO 2
emission) for automobile applications. Titanium can find many other applications,
such as chemical processes and devices, if only the metal could be made cheaper.
William Kroll, the inventor of the industrial titanium extraction process,
predicted in early 1950s that titanium should be made cheaper by electrolysis in 15
years. Half a century later, more affordable titanium is indeed being promised by the
development of the accidentally discovered FFC (Fray-Farthing-Chen) Cambridge
Process in the past decade. This presentation explains this new process in terms of
technical innovation and scientific principles with emphases on the reduction of CO 2
emission from, and economical impact on the metallurgical and automobile industry.

You might also like