U.S. Vanadium Holding Company (US Vanadium) has closed its acquisition from a leading Russian steel conglomerate of the only facility in the Americas that produces the world’s highest-purity vanadium pentoxide (V2O5).
The facility, located in Hot Springs, Arkansas, can produce V2O5 at the very high purity levels required by demanding applications such as maleic anhydride catalyst, bismuth vanadate pigments and vanadium redox flow batteries (“VRBs”). The facility also produces a suite of downstream vanadium-based chemicals for customers in the catalyst, chemical, petrochemical, titanium, and energy storage industries.
From 2008 to 2018, production at the Hot Springs facility under the previous owner declined from full capacity to very low levels. Over the past year, U.S. Vanadium has brought production back online through tolling contracts with the facility, and the new plant owner plans to restore the facility’s production operations to its full nameplate processing capacity of approximately 12 million lbs./year of V2O5.
High-purity vanadium oxides and chemicals are used in industries and applications such as the following: titanium alloys for aerospace, military and other applications; oxidation catalysts for the production of basic chemicals including sulfuric acid; petrochemicals including maleic anhydride and phthalic anhydride; pollution control catalysts; pigments for high quality paints; and a variety of other industrial applications.
High-purity V2O5 and vanadium trioxide (“V2O3”) are used at Hot Springs to produce the purest vanadium electrolyte in the world for VRBs. VRB batteries are increasingly seen as the preferred technology for use in large-scale electrical grid energy storage, particularly as a means of supporting greater deployment of intermittent generation technologies such as solar and wind energy. The VRB battery technology has matured to the point where it can demonstrate lower lifetime costs and safer performance than lithium ion batteries, particularly in long-duration storage applications.
