International Titanium Powder Continues Construction of Commercial-Scale Plant in Illinois

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--International Titanium Powder (Woodridge, Illinois) is moving forward with the construction of a grassroot commercial-scale titanium powder plant after some delays. Site preparation began in late 2007 at the site of the pilot operation at 1501 Titanium Drive in Ottawa, Illinois. Weitz Industrial LLC (Cedar Rapids, Iowa) has completed the site work and foundations, and is currently demobilizing from the site. Metal building shells have been erected. Some buildings are being redesigned to make room for the project's power supply transformers. A. Epstein and Sons International Incorporated (Chicago, Illinois) provided the architectural design for the project. Middough Incorporated (Cleveland, Ohio) is working on the process design, which should be complete later this year. Equipment procurement has commenced. Once the process design is complete, the owner will begin to hire contractors to perform the process mechanical, electrical, instrumentation, equipment setting and specialty items needed to outfit the finished building shells.

In addition to the project redesign, the project was also delayed because of an ownership change that occurred in late 2008. In October 2008, International Titanium Powder was acquired by Cristal Global, the world's second largest producer of titanium dioxide.

The new plant will commercialize the Armstrong Titanium Reduction Process to produce 4 million pounds per year of titanium chloride powder from sodium and titanium tetrachloride. Armstrong Titanium Reduction is a continuous process, as opposed to the traditional Hunter or Kroll process used by titanium producers, which is a batch process.

The company hopes to have the plant up and operating by the end of 2009, but don't be surprised if commissioning extends into 2010. Projects that move from the pilot to commercial stage will often have delays in start-up because of the difficulty of scaling up new production operations. Industrial Info has been tracking this project since the site study stage in 2004.

See related March 2004 news article - New Technology for Producing Titanium Powders Demonstrated in Pilot Plant.

View Project Report - 09003322

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