Extraction of the Rare Element Vanadium from Vanadium-Containing Materials by Chlorination Method: A Critical Review

Vanadium as a rare element has a wide range of applications in iron and steel production, vanadium flow batteries, catalysts, etc. In 2018, the world’s total vanadium output calculated in the form of metal vanadium was 91,844 t. The raw materials for the production of vanadium products mainly include vanadium-titanium magnetite, vanadium slag, stone coal, petroleum coke, fly ash, and spent catalysts, etc. Chlorinated metallurgy has a wide range of applications in the treatment of ore, slag, solid wastes, etc. Chlorinating agent plays an important role in chlorination metallurgy, which is divided into solid (NaCl, KCl, CaCl2, AlCl3, FeCl2, FeCl3, MgCl2, NH4Cl, NaClO, and NaClO3) and gas (Cl2, HCl, and CCl4). The chlorination of vanadium oxides (V2O3 and V2O5) by different chlorinating agents was investigated from the thermodynamics. Meanwhile, this paper summarizes the research progress of chlorination in the treatment of vanadium-containing materials. This paper has important reference significance for further adopting the chlorination method to treat vanadium-containing raw materials.