Vanadium is an element that is little known except to those who manufacture high-performance iron alloys and other widely used metal products that are indispensable for creating improved product performance across a variety of final-use sectors. We report here on deriving a detailed material flow cycle for vanadium in the United States for 1992-2021, the most recent year for which detailed data are available. The steels [tool steel, alloy steels, and high-strength low-alloy (HSLA) steels] are responsible for about half of the cumulative vanadium demand (167 Gg), with significantly smaller fractions being used to create catalysts, titanium-vanadium alloys, and several smaller product groups. These products flow to five end-use sectors, transport (61 Gg) and industrial machinery (62 Gg) being the largest. At end of product life, the vanadium-containing tool steels and catalysts are largely recycled, while most of the vanadium in carbon steels, alloy steels, HSLA steels, and other vanadium use sectors is functionally lost.
Keywords: United States; industrial ecology; material flow analysis; vanadium.