The manufacture of chemicals, petrochemicals, and oil & gas exposes process equipment to highly corrosive fluids. In these hostile applications, careful consideration must be given to the effects of the chemistry on the materials of construction. If specification is not appropriate for the application, manufacturing conditions can rapidly decline, leading to corrosion and ultimate failure of the process equipment. When this occurs, repair and/or equipment replacement will cause expensive and disruptive downtime.

Specification of a Titanium Column in aggressive atmospheres can offer a long-term, cost-effective method to prevent damaging corrosion.

Life Cycle Benefits of Titanium Columns

Also known as a Tower in some regions, a Titanium Column from TITAN is extremely resistant against corrosion. Properly maintained, Titanium Columns can operate for decades, making them a very economical choice over other available metals.

Titanium Columns can:

  • Deliver many years of economical service life
  • Eliminate expensive downtime due to equipment failure
  • Provide outstanding corrosion resistance

Titanium the Metal

Titanium is one of several metals which fall into the category of reactive metals (Titanium, Tantalum, Niobium, and Zirconium). Considered the workhorse of these metals, Titanium is readily available and used in equipment fabrication more often than all other reactive metals combined.

Reducing or oxidizing environments, with or without chlorides, are all possible with this group of exceptional materials. In addition to high resistance to uniform corrosion attack, reactive metals can be very effective against pitting, crevice and stress corrosion.

These qualities have led to acceptance and growth in the use of Titanium for Columns, Reactors, and Storage Tanks as well as Heat Exchangers, Pipe and Piping Systems in countless chemical processing facilities. Titanium Columns have outstanding performance in the very harsh fluids inherent in these processes.

Titanium Column Designs

TITAN designs and custom builds many different styles of Titanium Columns. Manufacturing capacities include diameters up to 120″, 300’ in length, up to 200+ tons.

TITAN manufactures pressure equipment in accordance with all major international design standards and pressure vessel codes.

Please see Applications of Titanium for typical mils of corrosion of various materials in hostile environments.

Designs and accessories to Titanium Columns include:

  • Solid construction
  • Explosive clad
  • Standard jacket
  • Half pipe jacket
  • Baffles
  • Tray rings
  • Dip tubes
  • Spargers

Titanium Corrosion Resistance

A Titanium Column will very often be specified for highly-corrosive industrial applications and are frequently used in processes in which chlorides are a component.

Salts, acids and other chemicals are seriously corrosive and damaging to lesser materials than Titanium. This can rapidly lead to repair and/or replacement of the equipment in a short time frame, causing expensive and highly disruptive process downtime.

To view a list of process materials where Titanium is commonly used, please visit Applications of Titanium.

For a general guide on corrosion resistance, temperatures and concentrations please see TITAN’s publication, “Corrosion Resistance of Metals in Various Chemical Media” for additional information.*

*Note: Final selection of material must be based on actual evaluation of the metal in the corrosive medium.

 

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