In the process of petroleum refining in petroleum industry, sulfide and chloride in petroleum products are seriously corroded to equipment. Especially for petroleum refining equipment such as primary distillation tower, top of atmospheric tower and top condenser, titanium material is used as the material of the above parts, which has achieved good results and basically solved the corrosion problem of the above parts.
Titanium pipes were first used as coolers in foreign refineries. Titanium was not only applied to seawater corrosion sites, but also to process heat exchangers without seawater cooling. Titanium tube is used in condensation cooling system of crude oil distillation tower, which can prevent chloride and sulfide corrosion. Titanium tube bundles and tubesheets have been used not only in the United States but also in the United Kingdom for many years. They include heat exchangers for heating crude oil and final product condensers for cooling waste water. They were originally made of traditional copper-nickel or Monel alloys. However, due to corrosion such as sulfuration, the service life of the equipment is very limited. After using titanium heat exchanger, the effect is very good. For example, Exxon Bayway Refinery has more than 40 successful applications of titanium tube heat exchangers. In addition, the refinery has also used a large number of titanium equipment in catalytic cracking, process water treatment, hydrofining, desulfurization, unsaturated separation, hydrogen purification, reforming, tubular distillation and polymerization processes.
In metallurgical industry
With the development of metallurgical industry, titanium materials have been widely used as structural materials with high strength and corrosion resistance. In the process of hydrometallurgy, the traditional materials such as aluminium alloy and acid-resistant stainless steel can not meet the needs of production process because of the equipment’s contact with alkali, acid and various corrosive gases, smoke and dust, which limits the development of hydrometallurgy. The use of titanium equipment is of great significance for improving production efficiency, solving common phenomena of running, running, dropping and leaking in hydrometallurgy, and reducing environmental pollution.
Application in Electrolytic Nickel Production
In the production of electrolytic nickel, the equipment contacts the solution with high acid content and active ions, and the corrosion resistance of titanium is excellent, so it becomes the ideal material for manufacturing electrolytic nickel equipment.
Compared with stainless steel motherboard, cathode motherboard in electrolytic nickel production has better economic effect and superior performance, such as deposited nickel skin is not easy to stick to the plate, easy to peel off, and higher peeling rate; titanium motherboard has straight starting plate, good rigidity, and uniform current density in electrolysis. Titanium cathode motherboard has been used in Shanghai Smelter and Jinchuan Nonferrous Metals Company, and good economic benefits have been obtained.
In addition, titanium is widely used in heaters, pumps and valves of electrolytic nickel production equipment. Application in Electrolytic Copper Production
The cathode roller of electrolytic copper production equipment was originally made of steel cathode roller. The corrosion of electrolyte resulted in pitting corrosion on the surface of the roller, which affected the quality of copper foil, and regularly grinding the roller also wasted human and financial resources. The above problems can be solved by using titanium roller.
In addition, most of the heaters and cathode motherboards in the production of electrolytic copper are made of titanium.
Titanium equipment is also used in metallurgical industries such as cobalt, zinc, aluminium, Mercury Smelting and tungstic acid purification. The main equipment includes electrolyzer, reactor, scrubbing tower, heat exchanger, agitator, evaporator, dust collector and so on, which have achieved remarkable benefits.
Application in Electric Power Industry
Condensers in thermal power plants and nuclear power plants are important equipment for generating units. The application of titanium equipment in power industry mainly refers to the application of condensers in coastal power plants. The condenser of power station is equipped with large amount of sea water. Because the condenser uses sea water as cooling water, and the sea water contains a lot of mud sand, suspended substances, marine organisms and various corrosive substances, the situation is more serious in the dilute brine where sea water alternates with river water. The traditional condenser is made of copper alloy tubes, which are often severely damaged due to various corrosion in seawater. The condenser leaks after running for about one year.
Some petrochemical enterprises and petroleum processing industries have experience in manufacturing and using titanium alloy equipment. For example, Moscow Petroleum Processing Plant manufactures the following equipment from BT1-0 titanium alloy: propylene polymerization reactor, decomposer decomposer pulsator, condenser, scrubbing tower. Titanium-lined containers can be used for evaporation (concentration) or distillation, or for reactions in weak acids or other chloride-containing solutions. Titanium-lined containers can also be used for nitriding organic materials with nitric acid and chemical reactions with other oxidizing media. Solution containing chromic acid and chromic acid solution vulcanizing can be selected according to the reaction temperature needs of this container with titanium lining. It has been proved that copper and other solutions containing gases can be used as catalysts for the catalytic oxidation of carbon chloride compounds when the pH value is determined. Then, when catalysis is carried out at about 150-200 t: temperature, the corresponding equipment must be set up, and acetaldehyde production equipment made of titanium is widely used. Towers, pipes, valves lined with titanium and acid pumps composed of rotors and stators are all made of Engineering pure titanium. Distillation column is often used for acetic acid purification, and most of the components included in the fractionation stage are made of titanium. For example, the middle layer and connecting parts of tower for distillation unit. Serpentine tube heater, which can prevent the formation of metal sulfate, after testing, compared with copper serpentine tube heater plated with aluminum, heat conduction increased by 30%. For urea reactor, in order to obtain (recover) carbon black and eliminate stress, a reactor with a diameter of 43M and a length of 8.2m withstanding 120T: temperature and 130kPa pressure is used. The reactor is designed to reduce the pressure of gas and other gases. This equipment is made of titanium. The application of titanium is further extended to crude oil and petroleum processing industry. The desalination equipment for producing fresh water or drinking water from seawater or organic acid are all made of titanium. At the same time, pumps, tubes and heat exchangers made of welded titanium tubes are reliable and durable through practice. Titanium seed plate for cathode is made of titanium plate in copper electrolysis.