Solid Oxide Membrane Electrolysis with Rotating Cathode (SOMERC), a Low-Cost Process for High Purity Titanium

本研究的目的是评估一种名为“旋转阴极固体氧化物膜电解法”(SOMERC)的新工艺的可行性，以低成本地从二氧化钛中制取金属钛。这项研究的方法是开发两个创新的设计特征，以避免钛的这两个属性，这使得它变得昂贵。通过生产固体金属，它避免了与活性极高的液态钛一起工作；阳极上的固体氧化膜避免了被称为离子循环的问题，离子循环降低了钛、铬和钽等某些金属的生产效率。这项概念验证拨款将为确定固体氧化膜作为钛生产阳极的适宜性的实验和确定旋转阴极是否会产生所需的致密固体金属的计算机模拟提供资金。如果这些研究成功，那么SOMERC工艺应该会如设计的那样工作。钛是一种高强度低密度金属，具有出色的耐腐蚀性，适用于从航空航天到化工设备再到海上石油钻井平台等要求苛刻的应用。不幸的是，它比钢(包括不锈钢)、铝和镁合金等其他工程金属贵得多。作为地壳中储量第四丰富的金属，钛的氧化物化学键能远低于铝和镁，具有以低成本生产的巨大潜力。如果成功，SOMERC将有助于实现这一潜力，迫使行业重新思考钛在从汽车到消费电器等仅限于工程师想象力的应用中的角色。此外，该项目还将为工程教育提供一个低成本、对环境无害的过程开发的范例。与其商业成功无关，SOMERC背后的科学将构成电化学和过程工程教育案例研究的基础

The objective of this research is to assess the feasibility of a new process called "Solid Oxide Membrane Electrolysis with Rotating Cathode (SOMERC)" for making titanium metal from titanium dioxide at low cost. The approach of this research is to develop two innovative design features to avoid the two properties of titanium, which make it expensive. By producing solid metal, it avoids working with the extremely reactive liquid titanium; and the solid oxide membrane on the anode avoids a problem called ion cycling which reduces the efficiency of producing certain metals such as titanium, chromium and tantalum. This proof of concept grant will fund experiments to determine the suitability of the solid oxide membrane as the anode for titanium production, and computer simulations to determine whether the rotating cathode will produce dense solid metal as desired. If these studies succeed, then the SOMERC process should work as designed.Titanium is a high-strength low-density metal with outstanding corrosion resistance used in demanding applications from aerospace to chemical industry equipment to offshore oil drilling platforms. Unfortunately, it is much more expensive than other engineering metals such as steel (including stainless steel), aluminum and magnesium alloys. As the fourth most abundant metal in the earth's crust, with oxide chemical bonding energy considerably lower than that of aluminum and magnesium, titanium has great potential to be produced at low cost. If successful, SOMERC will help to fulfill that potential, forcing industry to re-think the role of titanium in applications from automobiles to consumer appliances and others limited only by the imagination of engineers. Furthermore, this project will also provide an example of low-cost environmentally benign process development for engineering education. And independent of its commercial success, the science behind SOMERC will form the basis of educational case studies in electrochemistry and process engineering