Rare metal Vanadium, key for batteries, discovered in India’s Gujarat

Source: The post is based on the article “Rare metal Vanadium, key for batteries, discovered in India’s Gujarat”  published in All India Radio on 22nd September 2023

What is the News?

Vanadium, a rare metal, has been discovered from the Gulf of Khambhat in Gujarat.

What is Vanadium?

Vanadium is a medium-hard, steel-blue metal.It rarely exists as a free element in nature but can be found in about 65 different minerals, including magnetite, vanadinite, carnotite and patronite. 

Largest Producer: Brazil is the world’s largest exporter of vanadium followed by Russia and South Africa.Brazil alone is responsible for nearly one-quarter of the metal’s global export market.

– China has the highest vanadium reserves in the world 

Applications of Vanadium:

Vanadium is used primarily as an alloying element in Iron & Steel Industry as it imparts toughness and strength to steel.

Modern applications of vanadium include its use as vanadium secondary batteries for power plants and rechargeable vanadium redox batteries(VRB) for commercial applications. 

– The main advantages of vanadium redox batteries(VRB) are 1) It can offer almost unlimited capacity simply by using sequentially larger storage tanks 2) can be left completely discharged for long periods of time with no ill effects 3) can be recharged by replacing the electrolyte if no power source is available to charge it 4) suffers no permanent damage if the electrolytes are accidentally mixed and 5) has also been shown to have the least ecological impact of all energy storage technologies.

Defence and aerospace: Vanadium holds significant importance as a crucial raw material in strategic domains like defense and aerospace. 

– For example, alloys combining vanadium with titanium and aluminum are employed in the manufacturing of components for jet engines and high-speed aircraft frames.