Element 23 · Transition Metal
Vanadium
Vanadium strengthens steel and now powers grid-scale flow batteries for renewable energy storage.
Element Facts
SYMBOL
V
ATOMIC NO.
23
ATOMIC WEIGHT
50.94
CATEGORY
Transition Metal
PERIOD
Period 4
GROUP
Group 5
Key Properties
Vanadium is element 23, a silvery transition metal with five oxidation states that produce coloured compounds (the metal's name derives from Vanadís, the Norse goddess associated with beauty and brightness). Vanadium was first isolated in 1801 by Spanish-Mexican mineralogist Andrés Manuel del Río. Today South Africa, China, and Russia dominate global production.
Origins
Henry Ford's 1908 Model T used vanadium steel for its chassis — the strength-to-weight advantage was a critical engineering breakthrough. Vanadium steels were used in WWII tank armour.
Modern Applications
About 90% of vanadium is used as a steel alloying element — small additions (0.1–1%) dramatically improve strength, hardness, and high-temperature performance in tool steels, pipeline steels, and structural steels. The fastest-growing use is vanadium redox flow batteries for grid-scale energy storage.
At the Yard
Why QuickStop Metals doesn’t buy Vanadium:
Vanadium appears in scrap form only as an alloying element within steel (typically 0.1–1% content) — it is not extracted from steel scrap separately because the concentrations are too low for separate recovery to be economic. Vanadium scrap from primary processing or alloy production goes to specialist ferrovanadium producers, not general scrap yards. There is no consumer-level vanadium scrap.
Market Value
Ferrovanadium has traded at $25–60/kg over 2021–2026.