Titanium dioxide world production

Table 10. Annual World Capacity for Titanium Dioxide Pigment Production, t x 10 ...

Titanium dioxide [13463-67-7] is by far the most often used inorganic pigment (14). In 1993 the estimated worldwide plant capacity was around 3.7 X 10 t. Plant utilization in that year was only about 78%, thus the world demand for Ti02 pigment in 1993 can be estimated to have been about 2.9 X 10 t. Growth in worldwide production of this pigment has been phenomenal since it was first produced in 1918. 

U.S. production of titanium dioxide in 1993 was 1.16 x 10 t, an increase of about 2.2% over 1992 (15). The annual production increased on an average of 5.4% in the 1980s (16). There are approximately 50 world producers of titanium dioxide pigments. The world s leading suppHers are Du Pont (- 24% worldwide share), Tioxide (the U.K. Co. owned by ICI), and SCM Corp. Other producers include Kerr McGee, Tiwest, Kemira Oy, Kronos, and Bayer AG (see Titanium compounds, inorganic). 

Annual world production of titanium carbide is thousands of metric tons. It is manufactured mainly in-house by cutting-tool manufacturers by the reduction of titanium dioxide with carbon ... 

The process was developed by Du Pont in the 1940s and its first plant started operating in 1958. It has progressively replaced the older Sulfate Process because it produces less effluent in 1998, 56 percent of the world capacity for titanium dioxide production used the Chloride Process. See also ICON. 

Titanium dioxide is a large industrial commodity with world production over 4,000,000 tons but only a very small proportion is used as a food colorant. Commercial Ti02 is produced from the mineral ilmanite, which occurs in three crystalline forms, but the only one approved for food use is synthetic anatase. Anatase occurs in nature but only the synthetic version is approved because it contains fewer impurities.41... 

Sulphuric acid is the largest volume chemical in the world with an annual production of about 180 mill, t/year which is used primarily for phosphate fertilizers, petroleum alkylation, copper ore leaching and in smaller quantities for a number of other purposes (pulp and paper, other acids, aluminium, titanium dioxide, plastics, synthetic fibres, dyestuffs, sulphonation etc.). The major sulphur sources for sulphuric acid production are sulphur recovered from hydrocarbon processing in the refineries and from desulphurisation of natural gas, SO2 from metallurgical smelter operations, spent alkylation acid, and to a minor extent mined elemental sulphur and pyrites. A simplified flow sheet of a modem double-absorption plant for sulphuric acid production from sulphur is shown in Fig. 1. 

Titanium dioxide is of outstanding importance as a white pigment because of its scattering properties (which are superior to those of all other white pigments), its chemical stability, and lack of toxicity. Titanium dioxide is the most important inorganic pigment in terms of quantity, 3.2 x 106 t were produced in 1995. World production of titanium dioxide pigment is shown in Table 9 [2.1], [2.2], [2.3]. 

The chief mined ore of titanium is ilmenite (iron titanium oxide, FeTiC>3) and it occurs as vast deposits of sand in Western Australia, Canada and the Ukraine. Large deposits of rutile (titanium dioxide, TiO ) are known in North America, and South Africa. World production of the metal itself is around 90,000 tonnes per year, small compared to titanium dioxide production which is 4.3 million tonnes per year. Reserves of titanium amount to more than 600 million tonnes and while there is an abundance of this element it is extremely costly because it has to be extracted by a complicated process, and yet it could be so much more useful if it was cheaply available. 

Titanium dioxide is a large industrial commodity with world production over... 

The economic impact of Iler s silica coating process will continue to play a major role in the coatings industry, from the perspective of the pigment manufacturers as well as the coatings producer. A conservative estimate of 300 mUlion is placed on the value of dense silica coated titanium dioxide pigments that were sold in 1990 in the world pigment marketplace. The total value of manufactured coatings products is estimated to be in excess of 4 billion. 

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