28 July 09

Metalysis-led consortium wins Technology Strategy Board grant

Metalysis leads £1.8 million R&D project for next generation high value titanium production

A consortium led by Metalysis, the technology innovator for the speciality metals industry, has secured an £862,000 grant from the government’s Technology Strategy Board.

The Technology Strategy Board award, made on a match-funding basis, enables Metalysis to continue to scale up its technology for the production of titanium powders, exploiting the company’s breakthrough FFC Process. Metalysis owns the global Intellectual Property and commercial exploitation rights to this process.

Other members of the consortium are the University of Newcastle, the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre at the University of Sheffield and TWI, one of the world’s foremost research and technology organisations.

This public and private sector collaboration, between cutting-edge technology and commercial organisations, will design, develop and commission Metalysis’ innovative semi-continuous production plant to provide a consistent high-purity product at a commercially viable price. The plant is due to be commissioned within eight months, after which powder consolidation and characterisation trials will commence on the titanium produced. The entire project will last for two years.

“This project is a landmark on the road to us introducing a truly disruptive technology into the £1 billion-plus global market for the production of high purity titanium”, said Mark Bertolini, chief executive of Metalysis.

“The successful bid to the Technology Strategy Board was achieved against competition from other consortia for the limited funds available. Our success underlines the potential and quality of our exclusive technology as well as the excellence of our partners”, he said.

Metalysis’ new plant will produce titanium that can be sold as either powder or sheet form, dramatically increasing efficiency of use for this finite resource.   In the case of aerospace, for example, the fabrication yield from titanium can be enhanced from the current 10 per cent level to as much as 90 per cent in some cases.

“Metalysis will be in an even better position to prove the commercial quality of its products, as well as the process costs, at a level that can be converted easily and reliably to full scale production.  This opens up a new route to manufacturing titanium powder which can be directly consolidated into sheet products whilst delivering massive reductions in capital and operational expenditures, as well as very substantial environmental benefits”, said Bertolini.

Typically, an integrated 5,000 tonne per year titanium production plant using the traditional multi-stage Kroll process requires a capital expenditure of £400m or more. A plant based on the FFC process will cost in the region of £50 million and is expected to reduce the carbon footprint by at least 50 per cent.

Metalysis plans to enter the titanium market in niche applications. Having gained both production experience and deeper market knowledge, its technology will then be further developed and scaled up, in collaboration with a major industrial partner, to compete in volume markets. 

The Technology Strategy Board grant follows the recent appointment of Dr. Pelham Hawker as Metalysis chairman and successful conclusion of a £5.1million funding round in May 2009 in which all of the company’s existing venture capital stakeholders reinvested.

During the last five years and prior to this latest award, Metalysis has raised £19 million in venture capital and a further £4 million in grants. From a workforce of three in 2005, the business now employs 48 people in science and engineering, scale-up and commercial development operations.

Metalysis holds 26 patent families, filed in 88 countries.