Vanadium sustainability in the context of innovative recycling and sourcing development

This paper addresses the sustainability of vanadium, taking into account the current state-of-the-art related to primary and secondary sources, substitution, production, and market developments. Vanadium plays a critical role in several strategic industrial applications including steel production and probable widespread utilization in next-generation batteries. Confirming the importance of vanadium, the European Commission identified and formally registered this metal on the 2017 list of Critical Raw Materials for the European Union. The United States and Canada have also addressed the importance of this metal. Like the European economy, the American and Canadian economies rely on vanadium and are not globally independent. This recognized importance of vanadium is driving many efforts in academia and industry to develop technologies for the utilization of secondary vanadium resources using hydrometallurgical and pyrometallurgical techniques. In this paper, current efforts and their outcomes are summarized along with the most recent patents for vanadium recovery.