Vanadium: A US Perspective on an Understudied Metal

Vanadium is an element that is little known except tothose whomanufacture high-performance iron alloys and other widely used metalproducts that are indispensable for creating improved product performanceacross a variety of final-use sectors. We report here on derivinga detailed material flow cycle for vanadium in the United States for1992-2021, the most recent year for which detailed data areavailable. The steels [tool steel, alloy steels, and high-strengthlow-alloy (HSLA) steels] are responsible for about half of the cumulativevanadium demand (167 Gg), with significantly smaller fractions beingused to create catalysts, titanium-vanadium alloys, and severalsmaller product groups. These products flow to five end-use sectors,transport (61 Gg) and industrial machinery (62 Gg) being the largest.At end of product life, the vanadium-containing tool steels and catalystsare largely recycled, while most of the vanadium in carbon steels,alloy steels, HSLA steels, and other vanadium use sectors is functionallylost. Vanadium is a critical metalroutinely used in minimal percentagesin steel alloys. Despite its importance, this study indicates thatmost vanadium is discarded during recycling.