A process for recovering metal from a process material comprising the metal and a component that is more volatile than the metal, which process comprises: transporting the process material in a retort provided in a furnace, the retort being operated under vacuum and at a temperature sufficient to cause sublimation of the component from the process material thereby producing purified metal; depositing the component that has been sublimed on a cool surface; removing purified metal from the retort; and removing deposited component from the cool surface.

A molten salt electrolyzer having a metal collection chamber, an electrolysis chamber, and two or more electrolytic cell units positioned in the electrolysis chamber. Each electrolytic cell unit has a cathode having an inner space in a prism form; at least one bipolar electrode in a rectangular cylinder form and disposed in the cathode inner space; and an anode in a prism form and disposed in an inner space of the bipolar electrode. At least part of individual planes forming an outer side of the bipolar electrode closest to the cathode faces a plane forming the prism-form inner space of the cathode. At least part of individual planes forming the inner side of the bipolar electrode closest to the anode faces a plane forming the prism of the anode. At least one plane of the cathode constitutes one plane of a cathode of another electrolytic cell unit.

A connection pipe for coupling at least one reaction vessel used in producing titanium sponge with at least one recovering vessel for condensing and recovering magnesium and magnesium chloride separated from the titanium sponge in the reaction vessel; wherein the connection pipe is configured as a dual wall structure constituted of an inner pipe and an outer pipe, and comprises at least one heating unit provided between the inner pipe and the outer pipe, two or more sets of lead terminals located through the outer pipe to provide electrical connection to a power terminal in the outside of the connection pipe, insulators for sealing the lead terminals, lead wires for electrically coupling the heating unit with the lead terminals, and a stress absorbed portion provided on the outer pipe; wherein the stress absorbed portion is provided between the lead terminals thereby preventing short circuit and meltdown of the lead wires.

A method of processing finely divided reactive particulates (R.sub.Particulate) and forming a product comprising: providing a composite material comprising finely divided reactive particulates (R.sub.Particulate) dispersed in a protective matrix; at least partially exposing the finely divided reactive particulates (R.sub.Particulate); and forming the product.

A titanium base alloy powder is formed by subsurface reduction of a chloride vapor with a molten alkali metal or molten alkaline earth metal to form reaction products comprising pre-alloy particles and a salt of the alkali metal or the alkaline earth metal. A majority of the pre-alloy particles have a composition of at least 50% by weight of titanium, about 5.38% to 6.95% by weight of aluminum, and about 3% to 5% by weight of vanadium. The pre-alloy particles are recovered from the reaction products to produce a titanium base alloy powder containing less than about 200 ppm alkali or alkaline earth metal.

A process for producing a Ti or Ti alloy product includes exposing particles of pyrophoric Ti metal and Ti alloys to a liquor, gas or vapour that includes a passivation component that forms a passivated protective layer with Ti on surfaces of the particles.