Technology
Leading the Titanium Age
Our mission is powered by proprietary technologies invented by Dr. Zhigang Zak Fang at the University of Utah and developed with funding from the United States Department of Energy’s (DOE) Advanced Research Programs Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) program.
These technologies enable us to produce low-cost titanium metal from either titanium minerals or scrap titanium metal. The ability to use 100% titanium scrap as feedstock, which is not possible with the industry standard Kroll manufacturing process, allows for a novel, closed-loop and sustainable titanium manufacturing process.
Dr. Zak Fang
Dr. Zak Fang is the Chief Technology Officer of Blacksand Technology and inventor of HAMR and a suite of Ti process technologies from mineral to products.
Our Technologies
The HAMR Process
The Hydrogen Assisted Metallothermic Reduction (HAMR) process is an energy efficient thermochemical process that can produce either Commercially Pure (CP) or alloyed titanium powders at low cost and with low emissions.
The GSD Process
The Granulation-Sintering-Deoxygenation (GSD) process is a thermochemical process for producing spherical alloy powder that combines low-cost feedstock material with high-yield production and can produce spherical titanium and titanium alloy powders at a significantly lower cost compared to commercial powders that are available today.
Synthetic Rutile
IperionX’s synthetic rutile is produced via an innovative low carbon titanium mineral enrichment technology that upgrades lower content titanium dioxide ilmenite minerals into a high titanium synthetic rutile product without the use of carbon reductants, including coal, which are typically used to upgrade low grade titanium feedstocks into high value, high grade titanium feedstocks.