Titanium: Abundance, Properties, Recovery from Red Mud and Applications of a Strategic Engineering Material

Abstract

Titanium, although abundant in the Earth's crust, holds strategic value due to its exceptional strength-to-weight ratio, corrosion resistance, biocompatibility, and high-temperature performance. This paper reviews the geological distribution, historical discovery, and evolution of titanium's commercial production through the Hunter and Kroll processes. Titanium's allotropic nature enables the development of alpha, beta, and alpha-beta alloys tailored for diverse engineering applications. Key mechanical and chemical properties are analyzed, highlighting titanium's utility in aerospace, biomedical, marine, and chemical industries. Emerging applications and technologies such as additive manufacturing and powder metallurgy are explored for their potential to reduce production costs and enable advanced designs. Furthermore, innovative approaches to titanium recovery from secondary raw materials such as red mud are discussed to address production costs and improve sustainability. Finally, the paper addresses challenges in processing, cost, and sustainability that must be overcome to expand titanium's role in next-generation technologies. Unlike previous reviews that focus on isolated aspects such as alloy development or specific applications, this work uniquely integrates titanium's abundance paradox with the technological and economic barriers in primary production, explores emerging secondary recovery routes from industrial waste streams, and connects these processing challenges to current and future applications. This integrated framework provides a comprehensive perspective on how to advance titanium from an abundant but underutilized element to a more accessible engineering material.