Nasdaq-listed IperionX says its recycled titanium powder has achieved independent verification of the “sustainability performance” of a test product, claiming to be “the first commercial titanium metal powder for additive manufacturing to achieve UL validation for 100% recycled content”.
US-based UL Solutions is a global testing, inspection and certification services company.
IperionX, which changed its name from Hyperion Metals and listed in the US last year, uses hydrogen-assisted magnesiothermic reduction (HAMR) to reclaim and clean titanium scrap. It is building a US$20 million, 125 tonnes-per-annum demonstration plant in Virginia, USA, and earlier this month agreed a “scope of work” with Ford Motor Company for supply of titanium metal components to its Ford Performance racing arm.
It recently won the US Air Force Research Laboratory Grand Challenge to produce high-quality titanium metal powder from only titanium scrap feedstocks.
IperionX retains an Australian Securities Exchange listing from its former life as Hyperion. Its Nasdaq price is up circa-58% so far in 2023 to $7.92 (having traded as high as $8.44 earlier this month), capitalising the company at about US$138 million.
CEO and co-founder Anastasios Arima said the UL validation of IperionX’s recycled titanium powder recognised the “sustainability performance of our titanium versus competing metal products”.
“In combination with the results from our life cycle assessment, UL validation indicates that IperionX has the lowest carbon, 100%-recycled titanium metal on the market,” he said.
“This LCA confirmed that IperionX’s titanium has the lowest quantified life-cycle carbon footprint for commercial titanium powder, with a potential life cycle carbon footprint of just 7.8kg of carbon dioxide equivalents per kilogram.
“This forecast carbon footprint is over 90% lower than competing titanium powders produced from plasma atomisation, 80% lower than from titanium ingot produced from the Kroll process, more than 50% lower than aluminium ingot, and near equal to stainless steel ingot.”
North Carolina-headquartered IperionX says it is “leveraged to the growth of the additive manufacturing industry”.
“We are the potential ink for 3D printers,” it says.
“Major companies across the automotive, defence, bicycle, consumer electronics and green hydrogen sectors desire low carbon titanium from traceable recycled sources to meet their sustainability targets.”
Arima said the Ford and other links created a path to potential “re-shoring” of a “lower cost and more sustainable US titanium supply chain” and a shift from linear to circular supply.
The US is the largest global consumer of titanium metal for aerospace and defence but is reliant on imports after the closure of its last titanium sponge plant in Nevada in 2020. China and Russia produce nearly two-thirds of the world’s titanium sponge.
IperionX has a licensing deal with former University of Utah professor and HAMR inventor, Dr Zak Fang, to commercialise the technology.
