Vanadium
Domestic production and use
Seven U.S. firms that include the majority of the domestic vanadium industry produced ferrovanadium, vanadium pentoxide, vanadium metal, and vanadium-bearing chemicals or specialty alloys by processing materials such as petroleum residues, spent catalysts, utility ash, and vanadium-bearing pig iron slag. Metallurgical use, primarily as an alloying agent for iron and steel, accounted for about 92% of the domestic vanadium consumption in 2008.
Recycling
Some tool steel scrap was recycled primarily for its vanadium content, and vanadium was used from spent chemical process catalysts, but these two sources together accounted for only a very small percentage of total vanadium consumed. The vanadium content of other recycled steels was lost to slag during processing and was not recovered.
Substitutes
Steels containing various combinations of other alloying elements can be substituted for steels containing vanadium. Certain metals, such as manganese, molybdenum, niobium (columbium), titanium, and tungsten, are to some degree interchangeable with vanadium as alloying elements in steel. Platinum and nickel can replace vanadium compounds as catalysts in some chemical processes.
World Resources
World resources of vanadium go beyond 63 million tons. Vanadium occurs in deposits of phosphate rock, titaniferous magnetite, and uraniferous sandstone and siltstone, in which it constitutes less than 2% of the host rock. Significant amounts are also present in bauxite and carboniferous materials, such as coal, crude oil, oil shale, and tar sands. Because vanadium is usually recovered as a byproduct or coproduct, demonstrated world resources of the element are not fully indicative of available supplies.
