About Vanadium
Vanadium is well
-
established as a strategic metal that strengthens and hardens alloys like steel and
is positioned to play a significant role in emerging battery technologies such as batteries for elect
ric
cars and for large
-
scale energy storage. While there are some opportunities for substitution in steel
production, the same is not true for other markets, including the emerging energy (battery) storage
markets, the military and particularly in the aero
space industry, where vanadium is irreplaceable.
In 2007, the world
-
wide annual supply of vanadium was approximately 60,000 tonnes (or 107,000
equivalent tonnes of V
2O5
), with this coming largely from South Africa, China and Russia.
Today, more than 90%
of existing vanadium demand is from the global steel industry, driven by
increased steel production primarily in China, India and the developing world. At the same time,
various economic and legislative factors are increasing the use of vanadium in the st
eel industry (i.e.
stronger rebar in construction) where production of higher strength steels to meet the growing
demand for infrastructure is accelerating on a global basis. As a result, the demand for vanadium is
expected to grow at 7% year
-over-year fr
om 2010 to 2025 based on the steel industry alone.
In addition, new demand channels for vanadium from manufacturers of energy storage systems is
expected to result in additional demand for vanadium.
With the expected commercialization of
vanadium redox e
nergy storage systems, evidenced by the recent majority-stake acqui
sition of
vanadium redox battery (VRB) manufacturer,
Cellstrom GmbH, by a+f GmbH, the
renewable energy
subsidiary
of German-based conglomerate Gildemeister GmbH, vanadium industry experts e
xpect a
shortage in supply of the high purity vanadium required for these VRBs.
Each of these VRBs require between one and five tonnes of V2O5, depending on the size of the
VRB, and are being successfully installed into markets like India, which tend to
suffer from
inadequate and unreliable power infrastructure. To view information on a+f/Cellstrom’s CellCube
VRB, please visit www.
cellcube.com
.
