Water modeling the solid oxide membrane electrolysis with rotating cathode process

Abstract

The Kroll process for refining titanium is an expensive batch process which produces a final product that still requires intensive post processing to create usable titanium. A new process, Solid Oxide Membrane Electrolysis with Rotating Cathode (SOMERC) process is being explored. The SOMERC process is a continuous process that could produce large quantities of high quality titanium at a fraction of the cost of the Kroll process. This paper examines the fluid flow around the ingot in the SOMERC Process. A large shear between the ingot and surrounding fluid will create a fully-dense ingot instead of dendrites, because dendrites are undesirable. Using a camera, a plane of light and titanium dioxide particles, videos and pictures of the water were taken and analyzed to find how to create a large amount of shear between the ingot and the fluid. Out of the speeds tested, a rotation rate of 900Ê»/s for the ingot proved to create the most shear, and therefore the shear between the ingot and fluid increases with increasing rotation rate, making it more likely to suppress the formation of dendrites.