Vanadium

Vanadium is widely dispersed in the earth’s crust occurring in many types of deposits. Most vanadium is currently obtained as a by-product or co-product from titanomagnetites, petroleum, uranium ores, and phosphate rock. Table 1 shows the abundance of vanadium in the earth’s crust relative to some familiar elements.

Commercial production of vanadium was begun in the 1960s when it was required for evaluation as a structural material for breeder reactors. ATI and several other companies produced small quantities for this purpose. In 1979, ATI again began to produce vanadium in 400-700 lb. ingots. Recent demand has justified scale-up to produce 16” diameter ingots weighing up to 4500 lbs. This increased demand for vanadium has been due, in part, to its many attractive properties. These unique properties include:
• Relatively low density (6.1 gms/cc)
• Low neutron capture cross section
• Relatively high strength at elevated temperature
• Good fabricability
• Low rate of neutron embrittlement
• Relative abundance
• Corrosion resistance
• Superconductivity
• Low-temperature ductility.

Vanadium is widely dispersed in the earth’s crust occurring in many types of deposits. Most vanadium is currently obtained as a byproduct or co-product from titanomagnetites, petroleum, uranium ores, and phosphate rock. Table 1 shows the abundance of vanadium in the earth’s crust relative to some familiar elements.

Commercial production of vanadium was begun in the 1960s when it was required for evaluation as a structural material for breeder reactors. ATI and several other companies produced small quantities for this purpose. In 1979, ATI again began to produce vanadium in 400-700 lb. ingots. Recent demand has justified scale-up to produce 16 in. (40.6 cm) diameter ingots weighing up to 4500 lbs. This increased demand for vanadium has been due, in part, to its many attractive properties. These unique properties include:
• Relatively low density (6.1 gms/cc)
• Low neutron capture cross section
• Relatively high strength at elevated temperature
• Good fabricability
• Low rate of neutron embrittlement
• Relative abundance
• Corrosion resistance
• Superconductivity
• Low-temperature ductility

TABLE 1 - RELATIVE ABUNDANCE OF VANADIUM IN THE EARTH’S CRUST*
*From CF’C Handbook, 61st Edition, Weast

For many years, the major application for vanadium has been as a micro-alloying element for steel products. Added in amounts between 0.01% to 0.1%, vanadium lowers the ductile to brittle transition temperature of steel and increases toughness. Vanadium is currently being used in the production of high-strength low-alloy (HSLA) steels for applications in the automobile industry and the Alaskan pipeline where high strength to weight ratios are important.

However, the most promising new applications for vanadium are in alloy development. The ternary alloys V-Cr-Ti are being considered for the first wall and blanket in fusion reactors because of their low cross section to neutrons and because the isotopes formed upon neutron capture all have short half-lives. These V-Cr-Ti alloys also resist swelling and maintain ductility under a high neutron flux. V-Nb alloys are less dense than other refractory alloys and ductile even with strengths up to 160 ksi. V3Ga is a superconducting compound with excellent properties in high magnetic fields (18-20 tesla) that has been successfully tested by the U.S. Navy.

One of ATI’s major strengths in vanadium production is its ability to meet your product requirements whether large or small. If you have a special application and think vanadium might present a viable solution, let our technical engineers put their expertise to work for you.