Author: The Conversation

The transition from fossil fuels to cleaner energies is a global pursuit. But it’s faster and more intensive in some countries than others. Take the case of South Africa. Heavily dependent on coal, the country is proceeding with a more intense transition in which renewable energies are set to play a growing role. Renewable energy technologies have recently established their role in the global energy supply mix. This is because they have begun to overcome two big hurdles. The first was concerns about high cost. The second was their inability to provide secure energy supply. A number of factors have improved their accessibility and…

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William Gregor, an amateur mineralogist and chemist, first discovered ilmenite – some black sand containing one of the world’s lightest metals – in the UK in 1791. Four years later, this light metal was isolated and named “titanium” by a German chemist Martin Heinrich Klaproth. Titanium has comparable strength to steel, the world’s most used metal, but is about 56% as dense and 45% lighter. Pure titanium is very difficult to extract from ilmenite and so it took about 145 years before the metal became generally useful. Titanium alloys are made when controlled amounts of other elements – such as chromium, iron, vanadium, aluminium, nitrogen,…

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