• Resources Recycling
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.68-79
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• 2016

Titanium is the ninth most abundant element in the Earth's crust. It is also the forth most abundant structural metal after aluminum, iron and magnesium. Titanium is conventionally produced by the Kroll process. New processes to produce metallic titanium have been currently developed by many researchers in the world. In this study, the existing technologies, including both commercial and developmental processes, categorized into three groups: those by metallothermic reduction of $TiCl_4$ and $TiO_2$, those by electrolytic reduction of $TiO_2$ and hydrogen reduction of Ti compounds. Their mechanisms for reduction and their features are summarized and discussed in the view of industrial application.