Vanadium supply

Vanadium Supply and Demand Outlook, Report No. NMAB-346, National Research Council, Washington, D.C., 1978,125 pp. 

The world s most important vanadium supply comes from Peru, which formerly supplied 70 per cent of tho world s vanadium.2 The raw ore averages 20-25 >er cent VsO , hut before shipment this is increased to 35-40 per cent by calcination, Occasionally small quantities will run as high as 50 per cent. The mines are high in the mountains, being about 15,000 feet above sea level. Transportation was formerly by llamas and boat, but recently a system of motor trucks and a narrow-gauge railroad has been provided. The annual shipments have shown considerable fluctuation due to exhaustion of some of the rich-... 

The main vanadium supply in man occurs via beer, which contains between 18 and 36 pg VL The vanadium enrichment of beer has been traced back to filtration with filters containing diatomaceous earth. White, red and sparkling wines are also very rich in vanadium, but this may be due to the use of unwashed grapes, which may... 

Nielsen and Uthus 1990). Many of the findings were most likely the consequence of a high vanadium supply that induced pharmacological changes in animals fed unbalanced diets (Nielsen 1995, Nechay etal. 1986). The most substantive evidence for vanadium essentiality was provided in the 1980 s, from deficiency experiments with goats (Anke etal. 1983) and rats (Nielsen et al. 1983). 

After intrauterine vanadium depletion, the post-natal development of both sexes was significantly reduced. Kids with a normal vanadium supply during intrauterine development grew normally (Illing-Giinther et al. 1995). 

At present magnetites of South Africa, Russia, Norway and Finland account for a substantial portion of the world vanadium supply, yielding slags containing 15% to 27% V205. The reserves of present working deposits contain sufficient vanadium to supply world requirements many times over for decades to come. 

Figure 14,1. Vanadium supply/demand—Free World 1973-1980,...

The sensitivity is very good for nickel and vanadium but for these metals for which distribution data would be of great value, the chromatographic process is the lirniting factor, heavy molecules are not eluted from the column with the exception of some porphyrins. This detector can be used to supply H/C and S/C profiles for hydrocarbon cuts with the chromatograph operating in the simulated distillation mode. 

Most U.S. production (20 x 10 lbs ia 1996) of primary vanadium compounds has been as by-products or coproducts of uranium and of ferrophosphoms derived from smelting Idaho phosphates. Most of this processiag was from leaching acids, residues, and spent catalysts. The only domestic commercially mined ore, for its sole production of vanadium, is Arkansas brookite. It has contributed significantly to domestic supply siace ca 1969, however, it has not been mined siace 1992 (25). 

Contaminants in fuels, especially alkali-metal ions, vanadium, and sulfur compounds, tend to react in the combustion zone to form molten fluxes which dissolve the protective oxide film on stainless steels, allowing oxidation to proceed at a rapid rate. This problem is becoming more common as the high cost and short supply of natural gas and distillate fuel oils force increased usage of residual fuel oils and coal. 

Prices of other related goods also influence quantity supplied. For example, uranium production may produce vanadium as a byproduct. Thus, uranium and... 

The relatively high cost and lack of domestic supply of noble metals has spurred considerable efforts toward the development of nonnoble metal catalysts for automobile exhaust control. A very large number of base metal oxides and mixtures of oxides have been considered, especially the transition metals, such as copper, chromium, nickel, manganese, cobalt vanadium, and iron. Particularly prominent are the copper chromites, which are mixtures of the oxides of copper and chromium, with various promoters added. These materials are active in the oxidation of CO and hydrocarbons, as well as in the reduction of NO in the presence of CO (55-59). Rare earth oxides, such as lanthanum cobaltate and lanthanum lead manganite with Perovskite structure, have been investigated for CO oxidation, but have not been tested and shown to be sufficiently active under realistic and demanding conditions (60-63). Hopcalities are out-... 

The raw materials needed to supply about ten million new automobiles a year do not impose a difficult problem except in the case of the noble metals. Present technology indicates that each car may need up to ten pounds of pellets, two pounds of monoliths, or two pounds of metal alloys. The refractory oxide support materials are usually a mixture of silica, alumina, magnesia, lithium oxide, and zirconium oxide. Fifty thousand tons of such materials a year do not raise serious problems (47). The base metal oxides requirement per car may be 0.1 to 1 lb per car, or up to five thousand tons a year. The current U.S. annual consumption of copper, manganese, and chromium is above a million tons per year, and the consumption of nickel and tungsten above a hundred thousand tons per year. The only important metals used at the low rate of five thousand tons per year are cobalt, vanadium, and the rare earths. 

The cast iron in which Sefstrom discovered vanadium had been prepared from ore from the mine at Taberg, Sm land. When Daniel Tilas described this hill in 1760, he stated that iron had been smelted there since 1610 and that the supply of it was still almost inexhaustible (74). C. Beijell analyzed this ore in 1760 and found that it contained from 21 to 31.5 per cent of iron, that it was free from sulfur and arsenic, and that good, serviceable iron could be prepared from it (75). 

The lead-chamber process supplied the world s need for sulfuric acid for a century and a half. In the late nineteenth century, the contact process replaced the lead-chamber process. The contact process utilized sulfur dioxide, SOj, which was produced as a byproduct when sulfur-bearing ores were smelted. The contact process was named because the conversion of sulfur dioxide to sulfur trioxide, SO3, takes place on contact with a vanadium or platinum catalyst during the series of reactions ... 

In Great Britain vanadium has been found associated with the lead ores at Wanlockhead, in the Lead Hills, Dumfriesshire, as vanadinite,a and associated with the copper deposits at Alderley Edge and at Mottram St. Andrews, Cheshire, as mottramite. The latter was at one time mined and treated for its vanadium, but commercially profitable supplies of this ore have now given out. Vanadium has also been reported to occur in titaniferous iron ores at Antrim,3 and in rocks at Wicklow and Giant s Causeway.4... 

A secondary source of supply lies in the carnotite deposits of Colorado and Utah. The vanadium content in these is very low, being only about 1 per cent, or even less, and the ore is really worked for its radium and uranium content, the vanadium forming a by-product. The deposits of carnotite are considerable. 

More recently the conversion of benzene into maleic add in the presence of vanadium oxides as catalysts has been studied with a view to throwing light on the mechanism of such oxidations. The data obtained seem to show that the action depends on an osdllation between the two oxides V205 and V204, the dissodation of the former supplying activated oxygen for the reaction but it is also shown that the nature of the products of the oxidation is a function of some other property of the catalyst not yet clearly understood.3... 

The United States dominated world vanadium production for all uses until the late 1960s when several countries, notably the former USSR, expanded production significandy. At about the same time, the United States shifted from being a net exporter to a net importer this situation continues. In 1978, the United States supplied 15% of the total wodd production but consumed 23%. Wodd production values and anticipated capacities are shown in Table 5 (21) U.S. production and demand, as well as forecasts, are shown in Table 6 (21). 

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