IperionX Limited has published the life cycle assessment (LCA) for the production of 100 per cent recycled, low-carbon titanium metal using its patented technologies.
The assessment indicates that titanium powder from the company’s planned titanium demonstration facility in Virginia, U.S., has the potential for a life cycle carbon footprint of 7.8 kg of carbon dioxide equivalents per kg.
It also confirms the sustainability of the company’s titanium technologies and represents the first known critically reviewed International Organization for Standardization-compliant (ISO) LCA focused on titanium metal powder.
According to IperionX, the estimated carbon footprint of the facility will be 90 per cent lower than competing titanium powders from plasma atomisation, 80 per cent lower than from titanium ingot produced from the Kroll process, more than 50 per cent lower than aluminium ingot and near equal to stainless steel.
The primary objectives of the study were to quantify the life cycle environmental impacts of producing recycled spherical titanium powder from scrap titanium using the granulation-sintering-deoxygenation (GSD) process to identify environmental hotspots in the life cycle up to the production gate and to explore potential process improvement scenarios designed to reduce the environmental impacts of the GSD process.
The LCA was conducted by EarthShift Global, an independent expert LCA consultancy, and followed the international environmental management standards of ISO 14040 and 14044, including independent third-party critical review.
EarthShift Analytical Services Director Nathan Ayer claimed that by publicly issuing its critically-reviewed LCA on metal powders used for additive manufacturing, IperionX has shown leadership in this industry.
“It is fulfilling to work with a company who utilized the results of the LCA study to immediately improve upon their process, even before the LCA study was fully complete,” he added.
Meanwhile, IperionX co-founder and CEO Anastasios Arima said the independent verification of the lowest quantified life cycle carbon footprint for titanium powders in the market today is an essential milestone for IperionX and its customers who want an affordable, low-carbon, and circular domestic titanium supply chain.
