A Case Western Reserve University proposal for a low-cost, energy-efficient method to extract titanium from ore has been selected by the US Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy for contract negotiations. This one-year project will be funded by ARPA-E at about $675,000 through the program on Modern Electro/Thermo-chemical Advances in Light-metal Systems. The Case Western Reserve team proposes to use electrowinning to directly extract titanium from molten titanium salts. A specialised electrochemical reactor will be designed and built at Case Western Reserve to facilitate a stable EW process to produce the metal.

With a high strength-to-weight ratio and unparalleled chemical stability, titanium is critically important for applications in aerospace, transportation and defense. However, the current process used to refine titanium from ore is extremely energy-intensive, making titanium expensive, thus limiting its widespread use.

“Our project, if successful, will lower the cost of titanium by up to 60%,” said Rohan Akolkar, Associate Professor of chemical engineering and the principal investigator on the project.

Akolkar’s team, which also includes Uziel Landau, Professor and Chair of Chemical Engineering, and Mark De Guire, Associate Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, will work toward demonstrating the feasibility of their idea in the next year.

“Much of the cost associated with extracting titanium via conventional non-electrolytic routes lies in processing the sacrificial reducing agent, which is typically magnesium. In our direct electrolytic process, magnesium is not required,” Akolkar said. “This reduces cost, reduces energy consumption and simplifies the overall process.”