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Heavy Metals
Published in Abhik Gupta, Heavy Metal and Metalloid Contamination of Surface and Underground Water, 2020
Vanadium has an atomic number of 23, an atomic weight of 50.942, and a density of 6.11 g cm–3. The major ores of vanadium include patronite or vanadium sulfide, which occurs in Peru, and descloizite or lead-zinc vanadate, found in southern Africa. Vanadinite [Pb5(VO4)3Cl], roscoelite [K(V3+, Al)2(AlSi3O10)(OH)2], and carnotite [K2(UO)2(VO4)2·3H2O] are the other important vanadium-containing ores. Of these, carnotite is a radioactive mineral containing uranium. Other sources comprise crude petroleum, flue-gas deposits from oil-fired furnaces, and slags from ferrovanadium. The most important use of vanadium is in making ferrovanadium, which finds use in high-speed steel and tool-grade steel. Vanadium augments tensile strength and improves the rust resistance of steel. Several vanadium compounds including sulfates and tetrachlorides are used as mordant, silicates as catalysts, and dioxides and trioxides in metallurgy. Vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) is used as an industrial catalyst, in photography, textile, and ceramics, while ammonium metavanadate (NH4VO3) acts as a catalyst, in the photographic and textile industries, and as a reagent in analytical chemistry.
Review of Vanadium Production Part I: Primary Resources
Published in Mineral Processing and Extractive Metallurgy Review, 2022
Feng Gao, Afolabi Uthmon Olayiwola, Biao Liu, Shaona Wang, Hao Du, Jianzhong Li, Xindong Wang, Donghui Chen, Yi Zhang
Carnotite (K2[UO2]2[VO4]2 · 3H2O) is mainly found in Triassic or Jurassic sandstone uranium deposits in Colorado (USA), Australia, and the southwest of China (Li and Fang 1998; Yang 2010b), and is an important sandstone-hosted vanadium deposit (Kelley, K.D. et al, Vanadium, Kelley et al. 2017). Carnotite is an important raw material for uranium extraction, however, it also contains abundant vanadium (0.5–2 wt. %), beryllium, and other metallic elements. In this regard, vanadium is usually extracted as a by-product in the uranium production process.