Recovery Act - A Very Low Cost Process for the Manufacture of Ti Heat Exchanger Components for Desalination

The availability of fresh potable water is restricted in many environments. This could be corrected by the distillation of sea water; however the cost is very high due in large part to the requirement for titanium heat exchangers to provide the required corrosion resistance. A new low cost process combined with very low cost raw materials is being developed to provide a substantial reduction in the cost of the titanium heat exchangers. The low cost process was successfully demonstrated with the fabrication of the very thin titanium sheets which are used for heat exchanger manufacture. The low cost fabrication of the low cost titanium sheets will be scaled up to larger sizes. The large sheets and tubes used for the heat exchangers will be fabricated and tested. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits: Titanium alloys have a unique combination of excellent strength and mechanical properties that make them desirable for a wide range of applications including automotive. However, their use has been restricted by their high cost. The low cost titanium process developed in this program will result in a major expansion of titanium alloys into these applications.