If Icarus had used titanium to make his wings, rather than feathers and wax, he might have escaped from Crete and lived to tell the tale. While Boeing’s 777 only consisted of 5 percent titanium by weight, its new Dreamliner 787 consists of 15 percent titanium by weight and is surely the exemplar for the increased use of titanium in commercial aircraft manufacturing. (Boeing too seems to be having its own difficulties with things melting, but perhaps that may have a little more to do with another minor metal—lithium—than titanium.)

Titanium has been used in aircraft for nearly 60 years now, especially in military aircraft. Forty-two percent of the structural weight of the Lockheed Martin F22 Raptor, which entered service in the U.S. at the end of 2005, consists of titanium. And even back in the ‘60s, some 93 percent of the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird’s structural weight consisted of titanium alloys. It is also used in the Lockheed Martin JSF (accounting for around a third of the aircraft by weight), and in the Airbus A350 and A380 commercial airliners.

Titanium Minimum Content By Weight In Aircraft (’000s lbs)

Source: Daniel Jewell, University of Cambridge & White Mountain Titanium Corporation

The importance of titanium in the aerospace industry cannot be overstated. According to the latest figures from the U.S. Geological Survey, in 2012, some 72 percent of titanium metal consumed in the U.S. was used in aerospace applications, with the remaining 28 percent being used in “armor, chemical processing, marine, medical, power generation, sporting goods, and other nonaerospace applications.”

Globally, as the English metal research house Roskill Information Services says in an overview of its forthcoming report on the metal (“Titanium Metal: Market Outlook to 2018”), with the increased use of composites, particularly carbon-compatible reinforced polymers (CFRP) in the manufacture of large passenger aircraft: “titanium’s position as a key material in the aerospace industry is assured and growing.”

Quite apart from all the other qualities that promote its use in the industry, titanium has one particular advantage over aluminum: It’s much easier to use in conjunction with composites. Unlike aluminum, not only do composites and titanium tend to contract and expand at the same rates, they neither corrode nor erode each other.

The Qualities Of Titanium

While titanium may be costly and difficult to produce and work with, it does have the singular advantage of being, after magnesium, the fourth-most-abundant metallic element, and ninth-most-abundant element, in the Earth’s crust.

The characteristics it’s currently most important for, including those that facilitate its use with CFRP, are:

Lightness: Its low density means it weighs only around 56 percent as much as steel.

Metal Densities (kg/m³)

Data Source: The Engineering ToolBox

Strength-to-Weight Ratio: Titanium is the highest of any of today's structured metals.

Strength-to-Weight Ratios (ksi)

Note: ksi = kilo-pounds per square inch (1 ksi = 1,000 psi)

Source: International Titanium Association (ITA)

Flexibility: With its low modulus of elasticity (14.9 x 106 psi), about half that of steel, titanium is not only extraordinarily flexible, it springs back very strongly after it’s been stressed, e.g., when acting as a spring.

Moduli Of Elasticity Of Various Metals

Source: The Engineering ToolBox

Resistance to Corrosion and Erosion: Titanium is exceptionally resistant to both corrosion and erosion. In the former instance, its naturally forming oxide film protects it against a variety of agents: alkaline media, chlorine and other halides, gases, inorganic salt solutions, organic acids and chemicals, oxidizing mineral acids and water—in all its guises. (It also protects against microbiologically influenced corrosion.) In the case of erosion, titanium's oxide film provides it with strong resistance to anything from abrasion to cavitation and erosion—particularly at high-flow velocities.

High Thermal Conductivity: Titanium conducts heat extremely efficiently.

Low Coefficient of Expansion: Titanium's low coefficient of expansion makes it much easier to use in combination with ceramics, composites and glass than most other metals.

Titanium’s Applications

Boasting of such qualities, it’s not surprising that, in addition to its use in airframes and aero engines, the Titanium Information Group lists applications for titanium and its alloys as being:

Why Titanium?

Titanium occurs naturally and most commonly in two forms: ilmenite, or titanium iron oxide (FeTiO₂); and rutile, or titanium oxide (TiO). Their primary sources are mineral sands. Titanium, in whatever form it’s eventually used, is nearly always extracted from these two minerals.

However, only about 10 percent (5 percent in the U.S.) of all mined and synthetic titanium minerals are actually used to make titanium metal, with the remaining 90 percent used to manufacture titanium dioxide (TiO₂).

Globally, the largest reserves of ilmenite, in order of magnitude, are to be found in China, Australia, India and South Africa.

Ilmenite Mine Production

*Primarily used to produce titaniferous slag

Source: USGS

Reserves of rutile, which are far smaller, and of which far less is mined, are to be found in Australia, South Africa, Brazil and Sierra Leone.

Rutile Mine Production

*U.S. rutile production included in that for ilmenite above

Source: USGS

Ilmenite currently accounts for more than 90 percent of global titanium mineral supply. To offer up the titanium it contains, ilmenite is nearly always “upgraded.” This is accomplished by removing iron oxide and other impurities, to either synthetic rutile or titanium slag, which are then used in tandem with naturally occurring rutile for the production of titanium.

The most common first step in the production of titanium metal is to produce titanium sponge, so called because its texture is like that of a natural sea sponge.

This is achieved by chlorinating rutile. Titanium tetrachloride (TiCl₄) is produced by combining the rutile ore, coke and chlorine. Then, in what's called the Kroll process, this TiCl₄ is reduced in an inert atmosphere using magnesium, producing magnesium chloride and titanium sponge.

The titanium sponge can then be melted and remelted a number of times (and in various different ways), either with or without alloying elements (which include aluminum, molybdenum, tin, vanadium and zirconium), to make various titanium alloys or pure forms of the metals itself.

Titanium Production Process

Source: OSAKA Titanium technologies Co., Ltd.

Titanium Mineral Concentrate Producers

Globally (in 2011), sales of TiO₂ were dominated by Rio Tinto. At the beginning of September 2012, Rio Tinto doubled its holding in Richards Bay Minerals in Kwa-Zulu Natal in South Africa, following the completion of its purchase of BHP Billiton’s entire interests for $1.7 billion. In 2011, sales of TiO₂ from Richards Bay Minerals accounted for 14 percent of global sales of the feedstock.

2011 – Global Sales of TiO₂

Source: Rio Tinto

In the U.S., the two main producers are DuPont Titanium Technologies, owned by E.I. DuPont de Nemours and Co., and Iluka Resources Inc., owned by Iluka Resources Ltd.

Of these, publicly traded producers (excluding any in either China or Vietnam) are:

Titanium Sponge Producers

There are nearly as few quoted titanium sponge producers as there are quoted ilmenite and rutile producers. And production of sponge is currently concentrated in just six countries, with China being both the largest producer and having the largest production capacity.

Global Titanium Sponge Production 2012 (Tonnes)

Note: These figures exclude statistics for sponge production in the U.S.

Source: USGS

In these countries, and in the U.S., some of the main, quoted, sponge producers are:

In the U.S., other smaller producers of titanium sponge included Honeywell Electronic Materials Inc., a subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc (HON:US).

The most notable absence from the above list is that of Titanium Metals Corp., or TIMET, which was purchased by Precision Castparts Corp. for $2.9 billion toward the end of 2012.

Titanium ingot and slab are produced by melting either titanium sponge or titanium scrap, or the two together. While Japan and China are focused on producing mill products for consumer and industrial applications of titanium, the U.S. dominates the market for mill products for aerospace applications.

Because of titanium’s cost, an important source of the metal is scrap.

New Scrap Titanium Metal Recycling (Tonnes)

Source: USGS

Scrap is considered to be such an important resource of the metal that Boeing now implements a “scrap-revert” strategy with its suppliers that it launched initially in 2009. Boeing describes it as creating a steady closed-loop stream of segregated titanium from its supply base and internal Boeing sources. Among the “guiding principles” of the initiative are: “No scrap left behind” and “All scrap segregated and treated like gold.”

Perhaps most interestingly for Boeing, the benefits of the program include: “[T]he ability to keep aerospace scrap in the aerospace market while stabilizing the lead time, cost and market fluctuations of titanium. In addition, the scrap-revert strategy will help ensure a reliable supply of raw material for titanium mills.”

Launched with just 20 participants, the company expects some 200 to be involved in the program by 2014.

The cost of producing titanium continues to be an issue, particularly in the defense world. In the U.S., DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), in its DSO Materials program, is still seeking “innovative processing methods that dramatically reduce the cost of producing titanium metal and its alloys.”

Some figures in RAND Corp.’s 2009 publication “Titanium: Industrial Base, Price Trends, and Technology Initiatives” clearly illustrate the problem.

Source: Hurless, Brian E., and F. H. Froes, “Lowering the Cost of Titanium,” The AMPTIAC Quarterly, Vol. 6, No. 2, 2002

NB: Process costs were estimated in U.S. dollars per cubic inch of the relevant material and then normalized to the cost of aluminum.

Prospects For Titanium

In addition to its position in the aerospace industry being “assured and growing,” in Roskill’s opinion: “World titanium sponge production capacity of 330ktpy is well in excess of both demand and output.” The surplus in China is considered adequate to meet demand for industrial-grade material, while that in Japan, Russia and the U.S. is “more than adequate” to meet the demand for aerospace-grade sponge.

This may be the case vis-à-vis capacity, in the opinion of Rio Tinto Iron and Titanium Corp., with growing titanium consumption from China and emerging economies, “demand is expected to outstrip current levels of feedstock – both online supply and committed projects – by 2014.”

Across the demand spectrum for titanium mill product in 2011-2017, CAGR is forecast to be 4.4 percent, with the greatest growth in commercial aerospace sector, closely followed by that in China, according to figures from RTI International Metals, Inc. (RTI).

Worldwide Titanium Mill Product Forecast

Source: RTI estimates & Chinese Titanium Association, April 2013

Setting aside demand from the military, in the commercial aerospace sector, there are two main drivers of demand.

The airlines need not only to replace aging fleets, they need to increase fuel efficiency and reduce noise and emissions.

Air traffic is forecast to grow at a compound annual rate of between 4 and 5 percent through 2030 on the back of growing middle classes and general economic growth in China, India and other Asian countries, together with similar growth in South America and Africa.

Commercial Aircraft Deliveries

Source: Allegheny Technologies Incorporated from Airline Monitor, July 2012

Commercial Jet Engine Demand

Source: Allegheny Technologies Incorporated from Airline Monitor, July 2012 and ATI

In addition to the demand for titanium in the aerospace sector looking quite healthy going forward, so too does it appear healthy for various other industrial uses; particularly in the power generation and desalination markets. According to RTI, the outlook for titanium in the deep-water energy market also looks interesting as performance at ever-increasing depths, and complex environments, becomes vital.

Power Generation And Desalination

While traditional power generation has been a consumer of the metal for a number of years, in the field of renewable energy, there may well be opportunities for titanium components not only in biomass and geothermal energy generation systems, but also in wind turbines.

Desalination systems operate using two fundamental technologies: thermal distillation (evaporation) and membrane processes (primarily reverse osmosis). Estimates are that some 60 percent of the world’s desalination plants use reverse osmosis technology, with the remaining 40 percent using thermal distillation.

This last is both the dominant technology in the Middle East and the technology that uses the most titanium—in valves, tubing, heat exchangers, etc. Recently, however, there has been a trend toward the construction of “hybrid” plants that use both technologies to achieve the greatest cost flexibility.

But it is in another area involving thermal desalination, aside from treating seawater, that there may be some increasingly interesting opportunities. And this is the fracking industry. One of the continuing environmental concerns associated with fracking is what to do with “flowback”—the recovered fracturing fluids—especially when it so often has a salt content higher than seawater. One solution could be to use thermal desalination to clean it up to be used for further fracking, rather than either discharging into surface water or injecting it underground.

According to one company hoping to become involved in such desalination (but using its own proprietary technology that is neither osmosis- nor brine-concentration-based), some “1 trillion gallons of salty wastewater” is produced by the oil and gas industry in the U.S. and North America, and constitutes a market “growing at 14 percent a year” and that is “expected to be worth $1.6 billion in five years.”

Whatever the possible prospects may be in the world of fracking, there is no doubt that whoever actually does “produce a method of producing sponge that is less expensive then the Kroll Process,” will certainly, in the words of J. Landis Martin, TIMET’s president back in 2005, have found the “holy grail” and should reap the rewards therefrom.

Will it be someone like Metalysis, with its FFC-based technology? Or the likes of White Mountain Titanium Co., with its sublicense to use the “Chinuka Process” invented in 1996 by Derek Fray, Tom Farthing and George Chen at the University of Cambridge in England? Or perhaps a DARPA-funded project?

As HardAssetsInvestor.com noted more than three years ago, “if a cheaper way of producing titanium sponge is developed, it is a pretty sure-fire thing that use of the metal will increase significantly.”

For that reason alone, it’s probably worthwhile keeping a watch not only on sponge producers, the titanium melters, remelters and even producers of titanium alloys, but also the companies developing the technologies either to produce the metal more cheaply, or to use the metal in ways to improve performance, whether in power generation, medical devices or the oil and gas industry.