Novel Titanium Electrowinning Process Using Specialized Segmented Diaphragms

Titanium metal, with high strength-to-weight ratio, is an important structural metal for aerospace and defense applications. However, titanium is expensive largely due to the energy-intensive nature of the Kroll process conventionally used for titanium extraction from ore. At Case Western Reserve University, we are developing an alternative low-cost titanium extraction process based on electrolysis of titanium salts at high temperature. The key innovation in our titanium ‘electrowinning’ process is a specialized diaphragm stack, which separates the catholyte and anolyte compartments. The diaphragm stack eliminates extraneous reactions in the electrowinning cell, enabling stable and energy-efficient electrolytic extraction of high-purity titanium sponge. In this talk, I will outline the fundamental electrochemical principles governing the operation of this novel electrowinning process. I will also present proof-of-concept results collected on a prototype electrowinning reactor built at CWRU, which show feasibility of this revolutionary electrolytic titanium extraction approach. BIO-SKETCH Rohan Akolkar is Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) in Cleveland OH. He leads the ‘Electrochemical Materials Fabrication Laboratory’ in the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department at CWRU, which focuses on electrochemical materials research for applications ranging from electronics, energy storage and electrometallurgy. Prior to joining the CWRU faculty, Dr. Akolkar conducted research at the Components Research Division of Intel Corporation, where he developed novel electrochemical technologies for semiconductor applications. He is the recipient of the Norman Hackerman Prize of the Electrochemical Society, and numerous Intel Technology Development Awards.