Where Is It Used?

Bridges and Buildings

Vanadium is the most widely used alloying element for strengthening steels employed in buildings and bridges. It is the most effective alloy for increasing the strength of reinforcing bars used for buildings, tunnels and bridges; it is added to bars for prestressed concrete structures and suspension ropes and it is a commonly adopted alloying element for strengthening steel sections. Vanadium is used alone and in combination with other alloying elements for strengthening steel plates for box girder and other types of bridge. It is added to steels designed to resist fire and earthquake and is employed to strengthen steels designed to resist the corrosive effects of weather.

Interchange bridge, Johannesburg

The bridge at the Geldenhuis interchange near Johannesburg consisting of two 30 m spans involves four girders welded from vanadium steel plate. The steel has a yield strength of 350 N/mm² and a Charpy V impact minimum of 27J at -30°C required by local codes to guarantee the necessary resistance to fatigue.

Gion bridge, Sweden

Central Plaza, Hong Kong

Several hundred tonnes of vanadium are present in the reinforcing bars used in the construction of the numerous ferroconcrete buildings in Hong Kong including the Central Plaza - the highest building in Asia.

Sears building, Chicago

Lee house, London

Lee House straddles London Wall, one of the City of London's main thoroughfares. The tension members of the trusses across the 27 m roadway supporting an 18 storey office block are anchored in cast vanadium steel nodes each weighing up to 18 tonnes. These are the largest steel castings ever used in the building industry.

Cranes and Drag Lines

Vanadium provides the strength and toughness for Cranes and Draglines

Vanadium - reduces weight and increases payload

In cranes and the spars of drag lines, vanadium provides the strength in rolled and heat treated sections where the maximum strength-to-weight ratio is required.

Vanadium steels are also used in universal beams and in heavy plates (>330mm thick) where strength and rigidity are important.

In addition vanadium steels are used for the buckets of some drag lines enabling heavier loads to be lifted without distortion.

By suitable alloy composition and/or heat treatment, steels can be used in these machines which will resist fracture under impact loading conditions even when they are used in low temperature environments.

High strength steels containing vanadium have been used extensively for the booms of cranes and draglines, reducing the weight of the booms or enabling heavier loads to be lifted. Normalised vanadium-manganese steels are used in the form of plates up to 340 mm thick for various stressed members of drag lines including tension members in the gantry backs, masts and mast links.

Vanadium steels enable larger buckets to be used and increased efficiency to be achieved. By the use of quenched and tempered nickel-chromium-molybdenum-vanadium steels, having a yield strength of 890 /mm², in which vanadium precipitation gives secondary hardening and strengthening, loads up to 10 tonnes can be lifted by telescopic arms when extended to 60 m.

Steels for heavy duty trucks

Vanadium is used in steels required to have strength, abrasion resistance and toughness in many parts of trucks especially those operating in mines and other severe environments.

Vanadium steels also provide reinforcement to the side walls of trucks while they are being loaded. Vanadium steels are used in the frames to enable the maximum strength-to-weight ratio to be achieved so that the maximum pay-load can be carried.

Industrial Plan and Tubular Structures

Vanadium provides the varied combinations of properties in cast iron, heavy steel forgings and plate for Industrial Plant and Tubular Structures.

Vanadium - for reliability and durability in steel and cast iron

Vanadium in rolling Mill rolls

Vanadium is an essential alloying element in a number of steels and cast irons used for rolls in steel mills. The vanadium, however, has several different functions depending on the product being rolled.

Cast iron finishing rolls for steel Plate Mills

Up to 1% vanadium is added to cast iron rolls used for hot rolling of steel plate. the function of the vanadium is to increase the depth of chill and hardness on the surface of the rolls so that when polished the high quality surface of the roll imparts an equally high quality surface to the steel plate.

The hard surface containing vanadium carbides also ensures that cracks do not form under thermal cycles resulting from the rolling of the hot steel.

Vanadium also refines the graphite of the core thus increasing the strength and toughness of the iron enabling it to resist impact loading during rolling operations.

Forge steel back up rolls in four high Mills

Small amounts of vanadium (of the order of 0.1%) are added to forged steel back up rolls of four high mills to refine the grain size and hence increase the toughness of the rolls. This enables the rolls to resist impact loading during rolling operations.

Similar rolls with up to 0.25% vanadium have been used in the work rolls of hot strip mills.

Heat treated steels for industrial compressor rotors

Fully heat treated nickel-chromium-molybdenum-vanadium steels having a yield strength of 890 /mm² and a high resistance to wear are used for large rotors operating at high speeds to circulate large volumes of air in sinter and pelletising plant in the steel industry.

Vanadium steels in tubular structures

As long ago as the 1970s vanadium was used to provide extra high strength in steels used for welded tubular structures. Such tubes were used in the British Airways hangars at Heathrow airport and in the spectator stand at Bristol City Football stadium.

More recently vanadium steels have been used to provide strength in thick walled structural seamless tubes such as those in some of the columns in the terminal building at Stanstead airport and in certain complex joints in the sports stadium in Sheffield, England.

In all these applications the use of high strength tubular structures enables large unsupported spans to be built so that in sports stadia spectators can have views unimpeded by pillars and aircraft hangars can be constructed so that large aircraft can have free access.

Vanadium steels have also been used in tubes in chemical plant and oil refineries.

Hot formed pressure vessels

In many parts of chemical plant made from steel plates, such as pressure vessels, the plates have to be formed to shape after heating to make them soft. Vanadium steels which depend for their strength on grain refinement and precipitation formed during normalising are very suitable because the thermal cycles during fabrication involve temperatures similar to those used in normalising. As a result of this the structure and properties of the plates remain largely unchanged despite the fabrication conditions.

Vanadium steels are also preferred for bends and manifolds in high strength pipelines because the heating for the forming operations has little effect on their strength and properties.

Vanadium steels are frequently used for forged valves because they can be normalised after forging to give high strength without distortion.

Vanadium steels in industrial buildings

In North America "as rolled" vanadium steel sections are used extensively in the frames and roofs of industrial buildings. In these steels vanadium carbonitrides precipitated in ferrite provide the strength.

Tools and Dies

Vanadium creates the hardness for cutting edges and wear resistance required in Tools and Dies.

Vanadium tool and die steels are melted in induction furnaces and scrap steel is recycled without significant loss of vanadium.

Vanadium in high carbon steels forms hard primary carbides during casting sometimes in combination with other alloying elements present in the steel. These carbides are stable at high temperatures and mostly remain in primary form throughout subsequent forging and heat treatment operations. They are the basis of the wear resistance and cutting performance of cold pressing dies and tools. The stability of these carbides at high temperatures makes the steels containing them suitable for high speed machining operations and gives wear resistance to hot forging and pressing dies.

In addition to the primary carbides, some vanadium remains in solution and contributes to the hardenability, strength and toughness of the tools and dies. During heat treatment some additional hardening occurs to give increased wear resistance as a result of the precipitation of very fine particles of secondary vanadium carbides.

By varying the composition and heat treatment a wide variety of property combinations can be obtained. This makes it possible for steels to have the very different properties required in high speed tools and dies used in the automobile and heavy engineering industries and for domestic hand tools such as spanners and screwdrivers

Hot forging dies

Dies for hot forging, stamping and pressing operations have to withstand high surface temperatures (up to 1500°C) and thermal shock. In addition, they have to resist high pressures and, in the case of stamping dies, impact loading. In order to meet these conditions of service microstructures giving a tough steel with a hard surface are required and they are provided by relatively high tungsten-vanadium steels. The tungsten and vanadium provide the hardenability necessary to ensure a tough core and a surface containing carbides which provide the resistance to wear.

Many dies can be resurface after use and are therefore recyclable.

High speed steel

All tools used for the machining of steel at high speed, as in the production of automobile components, require a cutting edge which is stable at the high temperature reached at the tool tip which can be in excess of 600°C. Particles of vanadium carbide formed during the casting of the steel and which remain out of solution throughout the heat treatment operations satisfy this requirement. The original high speed steel developed at the beginning of the century contained 1% vanadium. Improved and lower cost versions were developed in the middle of the century and they are now the standard steels and contain 2% vanadium.

Cold pressing dies and tools

Cold pressing dies and tools handling hard materials must have high abrasion resisting surfaces. These can be produced by high vanadium contents. Normal casting tends to give coarse particles of carbides which can lead to cracking during forging except for small tools. Recent developments have taken place in powder metallurgy techniques which have resulted in refined microstructures so that large tools and dies can now be made. Tools and dies containing as much as 10% vanadium can now be produced for punches and dies by these powder metallurgy methods. Knives, shear blades, extrusion dies, pelletiser blades and screw conveyors, handling metals, plastics and other abrasive materials also benefit from powder metallurgy alloying. Similar tools operating in wet conditions are made from corrosion resistant steels containing 4% vanadium.

General tool steels

Vanadium is added to many grades of carbon steel used for lathe tools and milling cutters, blacksmith's tools, stamping dies, rock drills, chisels, wood cutting tools and razor blades. The precipitation of fine particles of vanadium carbide during heat treatment of the tolls increases their hardness and improves their cutting efficiency giving them longer life. Vanadium, through its effect on hardenability increases the depth of hardness in heat treated tools which increases their resistance to crushing, their toughness and hence their resistance to fracture under loading.

Chrome-vanadium steels for spanners and domestic tools

In spanners, screwdrivers and other domestic and engineering tools vanadium and chromium are added to increase the surface hardness and resistance to distortion under load. Vanadium is added with chromium to provide strong, wear resistant tools.

Tap dies, reamers, punches, planes, chisels and shear blades

In tools which have a cutting function the cutting edge is provided by hard carbides. The iron carbide of carbon steels is supplemented by the harder carbides of vanadium and tungsten in tools which undertake severe cutting operations. Thus planes, chisels, reamers and shears, especially those used for cutting hard materials or heavy sections of softer materials, are made from vanadium-tungsten steels.

Cutlery steels

Vanadium is added to chromium cutlery steels to increase the hardness of the steel and to give a longer-lasting, better cutting edge.

Automobiles and Trucks

The automobile industry is very demanding in its selection of materials. These must be strong, reliable, machineable, resist fatigue and give the highest strength-to-weight ratio to minimise fuel consumption and be available at minimum cost. It is the ability of vanadium steels, vanadium-titanium alloys and rubber produced by vanadium catalysts to meet these and other requirements that have led to their selection for critical components in may automobiles and trucks.

Titanium-vanadium Alloy connecting rods

In order to decrease fuel consumption, automobile engineers endeavour to design components with minimum material and to use low density materials. Connecting rods in some automobiles are made with a titanium alloy containing 5% vanadium. This alloy has high strength, low density and a machinability enabling it to meet the severe conditions of the high-speed machining operations essential in the automobile industry.

Vanadium "as-forged" steel crankshafts

Vanadium forged steels are widely used for crankshafts, connecting rods and steering knuckles in many automobiles and trucks. As forged they have the high strength required in these components and do not require the expensive heat treatment necessary with other steels.

The bearing surfaces of crankshafts are hardened to give the necessary wear resistance and by choosing suitable compositions the vanadium steels can be hardened by nitriding or induction hardening.

Cold-formed vanadium steel chassis sections

Vanadium low-sulphur, high strength steels in the form of cold formed sections are used in the chassis of heavy trucks and trailers to keep dead weight to a minimum and payload to a maximum

Vanadium steel springs

When vanadium is added to silicon spring steels the sag-resistance is increased and it is possible to reduce the size of springs. This makes a significant contribution to weight reduction and fuel economy.

Synthetic EPDM* rubber for hoses and seals

The hoses, belts, gaskets and seals of automobile engines which have to maintain their properties at engine temperature are made from synthetic rubber. This is made by processes involving catalytic reactions using vanadium chloride and vanadium oxychloride.

This type of rubber is also extensively used for mouldings around the doors of automobiles and trucks.

Aerospace

Vanadium guarantees the low density, high strength and ability to maintain strength at high operating temperatures essential for materials used in aerospace.

Vanadium is universally used in steels and titanium alloys for aero-engine gas turbines and in titanium alloys used for airframes.

Traditional titanium alloys for compressors and airframes

A titanium alloy containing 4% vanadium and 6% aluminium has been used very extensively for blades, discs and casings of the compressors in many design of the aero-engine gas turbine. The heat treatment made possible by the vanadium and aluminium enables high strength alloys to be produced which maintain a high strength up to temperatures of the order of 545°C.

The High Strength of the alloy has also enabled it to be used for highly stressed parts of airframes, undercarriages and the doors for the undercarriage of Concorde.

Vanadium Steels for turbine discs, shafts and bearings

High strength and maintenance of strength at high temperatures for prolonged periods are essential in materials selected for all sections of gas turbines used in aircraft. Vanadium is added to steels to give high strength and creep resistance at temperatures above 550ºC.

The full strengthening effects of vanadium can best be achieved by the use of Consumable Electrode Remelting Process, Vacuum Arc Remelting (VAR) and Electro Slag Remelting (ESR). These processes both improve the cleanness of the steel and reduce segregation; high cleanness and low segregation being essential requirements for steels used in aero-engine gas turbines.

Vanadium is added to chromium-molybdenum steels for turbine shafts and to high chromium corrosion resisting steels for rotor discs.

The bearings for aero-engine gas turbines are frequently made of a steel containing 1% vanadium with 18% tungsten and 4% chromium. For many decades this was the most widely used steel for high-speed machining operations because of the hardness of the primary and secondary vanadium carbides which are stable up to at least 550°C. This hardness also provides the wear resistance required to meet the arduous conditions of bearings carrying rotor shafts rotating at high speeds at temperatures in excess of 500°C.

New Titanium Alloys

Alloys containing 8, 10 and 15% vanadium have even higher strengths.

Alloys containing 8% vanadium have been developed with high strength and high flexibility so that the lighter titanium alloys can now replace steel for springs.

The 10% vanadium alloy in the form of heat treated forgings is used in airframes particularly for the support structures in undercarriages and has been selected for this application in the Boeing 777 which came into service in 1995.

The 15% vanadium alloy is produced as sheet with cold working properties and has a potential for air ducting in aircraft. All these alloys have the opportunity of making important contributions to weight reduction and the increase of fuel efficiency in aircraft of the future.

Rail and Marine Operations

Vanadium provides steels and titanium alloys with the strength dependability, durability and resistance to wear demanded by Rail and Marine Operations.

Vanadium rail steels

The addition of vanadium to rail steels can increase the tensile strength from about 700 N/mm² to over 1,200 N/mm² and thereby increase the wear resistance of the rails.

In Japan, vanadium steel rails are made by a practice in which the wear-resistant surfaces are produced by surface heat treatment at the end of the rolling process.

Fully or surface hardened vanadium steel rails are used wherever severe conditions of service are found. They are extensively used on sharp curves and steep gradients including tracks carrying iron ore which is transported in large wagons having axle loads exceeding 35 tonnes. In Russia where large tonnages of iron ore are transported over long distances, special vanadium steels are used to increase the life of the rails and reduce track maintenance.

Points

Vanadium-copper steel rails are widely used on Belgian Railways for points because of their higher wear resistance.

Railway wagons

Railway wagons used for carrying bulk supplies of coal, iron ore and similar hard products require steel plates for the walls of the wagons which will resist the abrasive action of the hard materials during loading and unloading. The plates are also required to have resistance to corrosion greater than that of ordinary high strength steels. Special steels containing vanadium, chromium and phosphorous have been developed which have these properties without the disadvantages associated with high phosphorous steels and are widely used for railway wagons carrying iron ore and coal in Europe, North America and Russia.

Ship plates

Vanadium steels can be used for ship plates. Increasing competitiveness in the shipbuilding industry has created a demand for steels which can be welded at high speed without the necessity to preheat the steels for avoidance of hydrogen absorption in the weld metal even when the welding is carried out in damp conditions. Accelerated cooling practices in the rolling of plates have been developed to produce high strength steels with low carbon contents free from hydrogen damage. Although other alloys can be used to provide a high strength, vanadium is often preferred as vanadium steels are free from the casting and other problems associated with alternative steels. Vanadium also promotes a microstructure in the heat affected zone of welds associated with higher toughness.

Sheet piling

Vanadium steels supplied in the "as rolled" condition are widely used for sheet piling in docks and along river banks especially where there is a large difference between the levels of high and low tide or where large dockside buildings cause high transverse loads. By using vanadium steels which have a high strength, the thickness weight and cost of the piling can be kept to a minimum. Vanadium also ensures good toughness in the steels, enabling them to resist fracture which could result from accidental impact from vessels in dock in cold weather.

Vanadium steels used for high strength chains

Vanadium steels are frequently used for heavy chains made from welded bar. The vanadium refines the grain size and increases the strength and wear resistance.

Cast iron cylinders for marine diesel engines

Vanadium is added to cast iron used for the liners of diesel engine cylinders. The vanadium forms hard vanadium carbides which resist the abrasive action of the piston materials at operating temperatures which can exceed 450°C.

Vanadium-titanium alloy bathysphere

Vanadium has been used together with aluminium to give the required strength in a titanium alloy used for a special bathysphere for exploration of the ocean at depths of 10,000 metres. The vessel is made as a single forging and heat treated to have a high strength in all directions, an essential property for a bathysphere which has to withstand the pressures of the ocean.

Electric Power Generation

For over fifty years of electric power generation, the stability of vanadium carbides at high temperature has formed the basis for the successful operation of many grades of steel used in most of the critical parts of steam turbines and boilers. During this period typical steam temperatures have increased from 480 to 560°C enabling the efficiencies of the plants to increase from 30% to over 43%. Various types of steel have been used for headers, superheater tubes, rotors, casings and blades to resist creep, corrosion and fatigue. Vanadium has been employed in a large proportion of the steels specified in Europe, North America and other parts of the world. Attempts are continuing to increase the efficiency of electric power generation from fossil fuels by increasing steam temperatures and by other methods and in most of these developments vanadium steels play a dominant role.

Steam, superheater tubes and drums

For many years molybdenum-vanadium and chromium-molybdenum-vanadium steels were standard materials for superheater tubes and steam heaters but for a while were superseded by chromium-molybdenum steels.

Today, however, when steam temperatures in some stations are of the order of 580°C, 12% chromium steels with vanadium additions to provide the resistance to creep at high temperature are being adopted. The strength of this steel at high steam temperatures enables the wall thickness and hence the cost to be kept to a minimum. Large steam drums which collect the steam from the boiler tubes are made from plates up to 150 mm in thickness. The steels used contain nickel, chromium and molybdenum to provide corrosion resistance but vanadium is present to give strength at high temperatures. Such drums can involve up to 200 tonnes of steels.

Turbine casings

The casings of turbines have to resist the stresses resulting from the steam pressure at the operating temperature. They are also subject to thermal fatigue and are made as castings. They are commonly made from 0.5% chromium, 0.5% molybdenum, 0.25% vanadium steel where vanadium provides the creep resistance at elevated temperatures

Rotors, Discs and Blades

The turbine rotors, discs and blades of a steam generating plant operate under the most severe conditions having to resist creep, fatigue and corrosion.

Steels containing 1% chromium, 0.5% molybdenum and 0.25% vanadium are widely used for the rotors of high and intermediate pressure turbines because of their high strength and creep resistance. They continue to be used in modern high pressure turbines operating at temperatures up to 565°C and at pressures up to 166 bar. In addition to providing strength and creep resistance to the steels through the carbide precipitates, vanadium has also replaced aluminium for grain refinement. This together with the adoption of vacuum degassing during steelmaking produces cleaner steel with higher fatigue resistance. These developments have led to the manufacture of rotors for high pressure turbines machined from monoblock forgings with considerable economy.

In some countries a steel containing 12% chromium, having higher corrosion resistance, is used for rotor forgings but the steel also contains vanadium to give stability at the high steam temperatures.

Similar 12% chromium steels are used for the turbine blades which have to resist corrosion as well as creep. In low pressure turbines they have to resist erosion from water droplets. In these steels, strength and creep resistance is achieved by vanadium and other alloying elements. The tips of the blades in some large low pressure turbines are subject to particularly severe conditions and inserts of high-speed tool steels containing 0.5% vanadium are used.

In low pressure turbines, operating with steam temperatures below 350°C, corrosion and erosion from water droplets are of greater importance and higher chromium and/or nickel additions are made to rotor steels. These steels also contain vanadium to give the desired heat treatment response.

Transmission towers and poles

Electric power from generating plant is carried across land to towns and industrial areas by copper or aluminium cables supported on a series of steel poles or towers. Many of the transmission routes involve long distance along difficult and remote terrain. For ease, economy of transport and erection, it is important that the towers should be of minimum weight. Vanadium steels having yield strengths 20%

Oil and Gas Production

Vanadium gives strength and low temperature toughness.

The oil and gas industries have for over fifty years continuously offered challenges to the steel industry and more recently to the titanium industry for higher strength materials. Invariably, additional properties are required such as toughness at low temperatures for pipelines laid in arctic regions or special corrosion resistance for lines carrying sour gas.

The greatest developments have taken place in pipeline steels for gas transmission because an increase in strength can enable higher pressures to be used which dramatically reduces the cost of transporting gas. Higher strengths are also important for oil lines to reduce the wall thickness of the pipes and thus to reduce the weight of pipes and the cost of transporting the pipes to site. This is significant in lines stretching for thousands of kilometres.

Where the pipelines operate at low ambient temperatures the steels must be resistant to low temperature brittleness. All steels must be weldable at the highest possible speeds without susceptibility to hydrogen cracking even when welded in regions of high humidity. For pipelines carrying sour gas the steels must be resistant to corrosion by hydrogen sulphide.

Vanadium is used in steels made to specifications involving various combinations of these properties for operation in many types of environment.

Pipelines

Alongside the increasing demand of oil and gas companies for steels having higher strengths, increased low temperature toughness and a capability to be welded at higher speeds, developments have also taken place in steelmaking and rolling which have enabled higher strengths to be attained at lower carbon contents without heat treatment.

The first high strength steels were supplied in the normalised condition and vanadium was added with nitrogen to give a fine grain size and precipitation strengthening.

Special rolling processes which replaced the normalising enabled low carbon steels with increased weldability to be used for pipelines but they required vanadium to maintain the strength of the pipe especially in pipes with thicker walls. Variations have taken place in the pipemaking processes but in both the traditional and new methods vanadium is used to maintain the strength of the pipes.

Vanadium steels were used in most of the major pipelines built in the second half of the 20th century including the Alaskan oil pipeline, the trans-European pipe bringing natural gas from the Russian Arctic to western Europe and the Northern Borders pipeline carrying natural gas from Alberta, Canada to the eastern USA.

Pipes for transport of sour gas

A large proportion of the natural gas coming from below the sea is sour and has to be transported by pipeline to land before the hydrogen sulphide can be removed.

In order to avoid the corrosion which results from hydrogen sulphide in sour gas, lower carbon and manganese contents are used and to compensate for the resulting loss in strength vanadium is added.

Offshore platforms

The legs of offshore platforms are welded from plate steels and in many the strength is achieved by the addition of vanadium.

In platforms built in deep water the weight of the superstructure is of critical importance and extra high strength heat treated vanadium steels are used.

Pipeline Valves and Bends

Valves and bends in pipelines are forged and welded from plates of normalised high strength steels containing vanadium.

Vanadium-titanium Alloy Pipe for Oil and Gas Wells

Vanadium provides the strength in pipes of titanium alloys developed to resist the severe corrosive action of sour gas and oil in some wells in North America

Oil Storage Tanks

Oil storage tanks are made by welding normalised or quenched and tempered steels which depend for their strength on vanadium carbide precipitation.

  

In the 1920s Philip Stacey Lewis, a young PhD from Liverpool University, England working at a zinc smelting plant in South West England, found that vanadium pentoxide could be used to catalyse the conversion of SO2 to SO3 which could be made into sulphuric acid and was unaffected by arsenic compounds which poison platinum catalysts. At that time the sulphur dioxide from the zinc plant was polluting the surrounding countryside but by the use of vanadium pentoxide to catalyse this reaction this pollution could be prevented. The discovery, which had been made independently some years earlier in Germany, enabled vanadium pentoxide to replace platinum in the UK production of sulphuric acid. Vanadium therefore became essential in the efficient production of wheat and other crops which use fertilisers made with sulphuric acid.

In the 1990s Vanadium continues to have an important role in environmental protection due to the ability of its compounds to catalyse redox and other chemical reactions through which it contributes to a number of processes which remove toxic and corrosive compounds from effluents.

Vanadium removes hydrogen sulphide from natural gas

Poisonous, objectionable and corrosive hydrogen sulphide, a constituent of natural gas from many oil wells and present in the effluents from sewage plant is removed by the catalytic action of a vanadium salt. the natural gas is washed in a scrubber through which an alkaline solution containing a pentavalent vanadium salt is circulated. the sulphur is converted to a sodium sulphide and then to elemental sulphur which is sold as a by-product. The vanadium which is reduced during the process is oxidised back to the initial state and recirculated.

If natural gas containing sulphur is not treated with vanadium the gas can cause severe corrosion of pipelines or require expensive special alloy steels to prevent corrosion.

Vanadium removes nitrogen oxides from fossil fuel power plant effluents

In processes for the removal of poisonous nitrogen oxides from the effluents of fossil fuel electric power generating plant, ammonia is fed into the gases which are passed over trays of honeycombs of catalysts containing vanadium chemicals. These convert the nitrogen oxides to harmless nitrogen and water vapour which then enter the atmosphere.

Vanadium enables synthetic rubber to be produced from ethylene and propylene

Vanadium oxytrichloride is used to synthesise caoutchouc in the production of artificial rubber. The rubber is used extensively for coating chemical reaction tanks and roofing as well as for domestic and sporting applications such as golf balls.

Vanadium improves the colour of light from mercury lamps

A combination of vanadium and yttrium oxides has a surface which reacts with short wave light from high density mercury to emit wavelengths at the red end of the spectrum. By applying a coating of yttrium-vanadium oxides to the surface of high intensity mercury lamps, the emission of the red light together with the characteristically green light emitted from mercury lamps results in a high intensity white light.

Vanadium enables Nylon 6,6 to be produced

Adipic acid used in the production of nylon 6,6 is made with hydrogen obtained from methane in a process employing alkali vanadates.

Carbonic acid formed from carbon dioxide produced during the reaction can give rise to severe corrosion of steel in the plant but this is inhibited by the vanadium compounds.

Vanadium enables production of fertilisers

Vanadium pentoxide is used as a catalyst for the oxidation of sulphur dioxide to trioxide in the manufacture of sulphuric acid which is the basis for the production of fertilisers throughout the world. Without these fertilisers the production of cereals and other foods on the scale required to maintain basic food production would not be possible.

Vanadium the "Green" metal

Vanadium pentoxide protects our eyes, our bodies, our food and our medicines from the sun's harmful ultraviolet rays.

Vanadium pentoxide in glass for telescopes, cameras and other optical instruments in used to absorb ultraviolet light to protect the operators and to prevent fogging of photographs. The lenses are mounted in a vanadium-titanium alloy having a similar coefficient of thermal expansion to the glass of the lenses.

Vanadium pentoxide absorbs ultraviolet light and when added to the glass or plastic used for spectacles it protects the eyes from the harmful effects of these rays.

Glass containing vanadium pentoxide is used in buildings to protect occupants from ultraviolet light.

When Vanadium pentoxide is added to glass or plastic used for bottles and jars, the absoption of the ultraviolet rays protects medicine and food from premature oxidation, photolysis and photodegradation.

Vanadium salts for decorative ceramics

Vanadium salts together with other chemicals are well known for the brilliant orange and blue colours which they can produce in ceramics and enamels. they continue to be used to produce these colours in all kinds of products.

Vanadium salts for textiles and leather

Vanadium oxide reacts with organic compounds to produce dyes for textiles and leather which resist fading in strong sunlight. The famous black anthrecene dyes depend on the vanadium catalytic conversion.

Vanadium in power generation

The growing concern over pollution is promoting the use of hydrogen storage batteries for many current applications, including electric cars. Hydrogen storage batteries which use vanadium alloys to store the hydrogen have a higher unit capacity and give less pollution than conventional batteries.

Vanadium cab also be used as an anode in batteries and enables hem to operate at temperatures down to -40ºC.

Vanadium improves the colour quality of television and computer screens

Vanadium phosphor emits a red light when bombarded with electrons and is used in the coatings of television and computer screens to improve the quality of red light.

Vanadium enables plastics to be produced from oil and coal

The redox-catalytic activity of vanadium oxide enables the controlled catalytic oxidation of napthalene and ortho-oxylene to phthalic-anhydride and of butane and benzene to maleic-anhydride to take place. Both compounds are essential monomers in the production of polyesters and plastics.

Vanadium in certain plastics produces brilliant and stable colours.

 

Source of above information: www.vanitec.com