The Largest Single-Site Sponge Titanium Factory In China Has Set The Fastest Record For Production And Technical-Economic Indicators

Located in a vanadium-titanium industrial base in the southwest region, the 35,000-ton expansion project of sponge titanium was initiated in April 2022. It was completed and put into operation in just 16 months. In 2024, it achieved full production for six consecutive months and all quality and technical-economic indicators reached the design targets for three consecutive months, setting a record for the fastest transition from construction to production and achieving efficiency in the largest single-sphere sponge titanium factory in China. The success of this project marks a major breakthrough in China's sponge titanium industry, forming an industrial scale of 60,000 tons per year, laying a solid foundation for the construction of a titanium metal resource base.

This project is located in the Panxi area, which is rich in vanadium and titanium resources. It covers an area of 391 mu and is equipped with a 75,000 tons per year chlor-alkali system. As an important part of the national strategic resource development, this base relies on the globally unique conversion technology of titanium-containing blast furnace slag and the 100% use of low-grade high-calcium-magnesium-titanium concentrate in the production process. It has successfully developed special products such as ultra-soft titanium and small-grain titanium. After the project is completed, the base will simultaneously have two advanced titanium material production lines, namely the vacuum self-consuming arc furnace and the electron beam cold bed furnace, achieving the full-process production capacity from sponge titanium to 8-meter titanium ingots.

Facing an urgent construction period of 18 months and complex geological conditions, the construction team innovatively adopted the "command center + project management department" management model. During the rainy season construction phase, for problems such as the hoisting of the 30-meter-span factory building and underground massive rock obstacles, they broke through technical bottlenecks through special construction plans and collaborative operations of large equipment. The design, construction, and supervision units established a four-party joint meeting mechanism, solving a total of 200 construction problems. Eventually, the equipment installation and commissioning were completed ahead of schedule. In August 2023, the core device of the project produced the first qualified sponge titanium, setting a new record for the construction period of similar projects.

During the process of reaching the designed production capacity of the project, the technical team overcame a number of industry challenges: they established a dynamic balance model for the titanium-magnesium circulation system, optimized the reaction efficiency of the chlorine chemical process, and shortened the distillation cycle by 15%; they developed a new feeding control system, increasing the single-furnace production capacity of the reduction furnace by 8%; through intelligent monitoring technology, they improved the operational stability of the electrolytic cells by 20%. To ensure the operation of the new line, 488 technical experts were allocated from within the group and received 1,200 hours of specialized training, forming a standardized operation system. In June 2024, the project achieved full-load operation of the designed production capacity, and in September, six key indicators, such as unit energy consumption and metal recovery rate met the standards comprehensively.

Currently, this base is advancing the intelligent transformation of equipment and the research and development of high-end titanium alloys. It plans to establish a comprehensive production system that includes titanium plates, titanium profiles, and titanium products. It also focuses on building a global titanium metal production base with the most complete product system and leading technology to provide the key material support for China's high-end equipment manufacturing and strategic emerging industry development.