Titanium Applications in the Pharmaceutical Industry
Aug 12, 2025
The pharmaceutical industry is crucial to people's physical and mental health, encompassing a wide range of sectors, including pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, and sanitary materials, and plays a crucial role in the national economy. Titanium is widely used in the pharmaceutical industry due to its non-toxicity and good compatibility with the human body.
In pharmaceutical production, since drugs require acids, alkalis, and salts, pharmaceutical equipment is susceptible to corrosion and damage. Using steel equipment not only fails to address the serious corrosion problem, but also results in significant losses in manpower, material, and financial resources, disrupting normal production. Titanium equipment effectively addresses this issue.
In the production of several major and commonly used pharmaceuticals, equipment made of titanium exhibits excellent corrosion resistance and has achieved significant economic benefits.
1. Vitamin B1 Production
In my country, vitamin B1 is primarily produced using the hydrogen chloride conversion method. The finished product is cyclone-dried and separated by two cyclones. The medium used is thiamine hydrochloride, which has a pH of 2.5 and a temperature of 110°C, making it highly corrosive. The existing stainless steel drying unit suffered corrosion and perforation of the inner wall after just over a year of use, seriously contaminating the drug. The use of titanium screw feeders, cyclone separators, vortex bodies, hoppers, discharge pipes, and titanium linings for the exhaust box has increased the qualified rate for vitamin B1 production from a maximum of 95% to 100%. The equipment has shown no corrosion in over seven years of use, and the titanium cost can be recovered in just three months.
2. Vitamin C Production
Vitamin C is produced from sorbitol, which is fermented with black vinegar bacteria to produce sorbose. This is then fermented with Pseudomonas to produce low-concentration gulonic acid, which is then concentrated and converted to the finished product using hydrogen chloride.
Titanium is highly resistant to corrosion in high-temperature gulonic acid. The production process for this product utilizes titanium shell-and-tube heat exchangers, titanium DHC-500 butterfly-type decanter centrifuges with automatic slag discharge, and TC4 cast impellers, all of which have been used for years without any corrosion. 3. Antibiotic Production
The main raw material for the chemical synthesis of chloramphenicol (an antibiotic) is methyl dichloroacetate, which contains approximately 2% chlorinated olefins and trichloroethylene. The refining process, when using steel equipment, is prone to severe corrosion. However, after switching to titanium equipment, the process has remained intact to date.
4. Anesthetic Production
Procaine hydrochloride, used for local anesthesia, is produced using p-nitrotoluene as a raw material. The entire production process, from oxidation to p-nitrobenzoic acid, acetic acid washing, and mother liquor recovery, is highly corrosive. Therefore, the production equipment utilizes a titanium-steel composite plate inner cylinder, titanium bubbling tubes, glacial acetic acid circulation condensers, and vapor-liquid separators, thereby addressing the corrosion issue.
5. Anthelmintic and Other Pharmaceutical Production
Quchujing (tetramisole) is a highly effective intestinal nematode anthelmintic. The production of this product, previously made using stainless steel equipment, resulted in product contamination due to corrosion. Switching to titanium for feed and pump inlet pipes successfully resolved the corrosion issue. Nitrochlorophenol is an effective veterinary drug for treating Fasciola hepatica in cattle and sheep. It is produced using sulfuric acid, nitric acid, glacial acetic acid, and a chlorine-containing solution. A titanium agitator in the nitration tank has been used and continues to operate flawlessly. Furthermore, activated carbon decolorization is commonly used in pharmaceutical production. After replacing a stainless steel suction filter with a titanium one, it has remained in good working order for nine years.
In the production of brominated amino acids abroad, titanium reactors are used for the bromination, separation, salting-out, extraction, and distillation processes. In my country, titanium equipment is also necessary for the production of quinoline derivatives for antimalarial drugs, chloride-contaminated schistosomiasis drugs, contraceptives, and rheumatism drugs. Other applications, such as penicillin esterification reactors, saccharification tanks, chloramphenicol thin-film evaporators, analgin reactors, metol filters, dimethyl sulfate coolers, and liquid drug filters, all of which are feasible and necessary to manufacture using titanium.
The company boasts leading domestic titanium processing production lines, including:
German-imported precision titanium tube production line (annual production capacity: 30,000 tons);
Japanese-technology titanium foil rolling line (thinnest to 6μm);
Fully automated titanium rod continuous extrusion line;
Intelligent titanium plate and strip finishing mill;
The MES system enables digital control and management of the entire production process, achieving product dimensional accuracy of ±0.01μm.
