Titanium-clad steel gasoline refinery vessel production

Tantalum (NOT titanium — Tom is discussing tantalum-clad steel here) refinery vessels for concentrated sulfuric acid in gasoline production, fabricated by explosive bonding at Explosive Fabricators outside Boulder, CO. Steel plate ~4 inches thick clad with ~¼ inch tantalum.

They found that at the right angle — let's say you want to take a plate of tantalum. Tantalum has a value approximately the same as silver. Tantalum is only one of two materials that can tolerate concentrated sulfuric acid without corrosion. Every ounce of gasoline in the world is made in a vat of tantalum, because they use concentrated sulfuric acid to get rid of the water in the gas from cracking. When you break down the heavy hydrocarbons to make octane, you end up generating a bunch of water, and the sulfuric acid will suck the water out. They call sulfuric acid a catalyst, but you have to use tantalum tanks. You can't build a great big pressure vessel out of tantalum 3 or 4 inches thick — no one could afford gasoline. So they take a great big steel tank, and they clad it with about a quarter inch of tantalum, and they do it by explosive bonding.