Titanium has high specific strength, is resistant to seawater corrosion and marine atmosphere corrosion, and has good corrosion fatigue resistance, which can meet the requirements of marine engineering applications. It has broad application prospects in fields including shipbuilding industry, seawater desalination, offshore drilling platforms, deep submersibles, deep sea space stations, coastal facilities, etc. The marine field will become one of the most potential growth directions for titanium and titanium alloy materials in the future.
The base number of titanium used in ships is relatively low, and the room for future growth is broad. Compared with foreign countries, there is still a big gap in the development of marine titanium alloys in China. mainly reflects in:
1) There are few application parts, only used on some sporadic parts;
2) The amount is small, the proportion of titanium alloy used in foreign ships reaches 13%, and only about 1% in China. At the same time, due to the limitation of equipment capacity, the varieties and specifications of titanium alloys produced in China are limited, and processing and manufacturing technologies are relatively backward, and some products still need to be imported from Russia.
The future growth of titanium alloy consumption in China's shipbuilding industry is vast. According to the estimation of the current annual output of China's shipbuilding industry, an increase of 1% in the proportion of titanium materials can bring more than 2,000 tons of new demand.
eawater desalination: Titanium materials are mainly used in titanium desalination projects. Thanks to their excellent corrosion resistance and rigidity, titanium materials have become the first choice for pipelines in seawater desalination plants. Reverse osmosis, low temperature multi-effect and multi-level flash seawater desalination technology are the mainstream technologies that have been commercialized internationally. China's current seawater desalination plant is mainly based on reverse osmosis and low temperature multi-effects, of which the latter has a water production scale of about 30%, and low temperature multi-effects require 5-10 tons of titanium welded pipes per 10,000 tons of water production devices.
The annual increase in titanium consumption in the seawater desalination sector is expected to be 150 tons. According to the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan for National Seawater Utilization", by the end of the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan", the total scale of China's seawater desalination will reach 2.2 million tons / day or more. That is, in 2019/2020, the newly added desalination scale will reach 500,000 tons / year. According to the evaporation method accounting for 30%, the corresponding amount of titanium welded pipe is about 150 tons.
In 2017, with the successful construction of the world's most advanced semi-submersible drilling platforms "Blue Whale 1" and "Blue Whale 2", China's offshore oil and gas production capacity has increased significantly. At present, the application areas of titanium alloys in offshore oil and gas mainly include heat exchangers, lifting devices, structural parts, fasteners, etc. The average amount of titanium alloys for an offshore drilling platform can reach 1500-2000 tons.
The main construction material of the deep-sea space station is titanium alloy, which further expands the application field of titanium alloy. In 2013, China's first 35-ton deep-sea space station experimental platform was launched, and the "Thirteenth Five-Year National Science and Technology Innovation Plan" included the deep-sea space station in China's "Science and Technology Innovation 2030 Major Project". According to the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan", it is expected that the 300-ton class will be developed in 2020, the 1500-ton class will be developed in 2025, and the 3,000-ton deep-sea space station will be developed in 2030. The main construction material of the space station is titanium alloy, and it is estimated that the construction of a main station will consume more than 4,000 tons of titanium alloy wool.
The amount of titanium used in the marine sector is expected to exceed 11,000 tons in 2025, reaching a three-fold level in 2018. With China's continuous efforts in the fields of seawater desalination, offshore oil and gas exploitation, deep sea engineering, and the expected increase in the proportion of marine titanium, the amount of titanium in the marine field will show a rapid growth trend, which is expected to reach 6590 tons by 2021, 2019-2021 The annual CAGR is 20.8%, the growth rate is ahead of other fields; by 2025, it is expected to exceed 11,000 tons.