ORGANIC CHEMICALS
Titanium generally shows good corrosion resistance to organic media (Table 19) and is steadily finding increasing application in equipment for handling organic compounds. Kane^(4) points out that titanium is a standard construction material in the Wacker Process for the production of acetaldehyde by oxidation of ethylene in an aqueous solution of metal chlorides. Successful application has also been established in critical areas of terephthalic and adipic acid production.

Generally, the presence of moisture (even trace amounts) and oxygen is very beneficial to the passivity of titanium in organic media. In certain anhydrous organic media, titanium passivity can be difficult to maintain. For example, methyl alcohol can cause stress corrosion cracking in unalloyed titanium (see Stress Corrosion Cracking) when the water content is below 1.5%.^(31,32) At high temperatures in anhydrous environments where dissociation of the organic compound can occur, hydrogen embrittlement of the titanium may be possible. Since many organic processes contain either trace amounts of water and or oxygen, titanium has found successful application in organic process streams.