New Energy-Storage Metal Vanadium Resources: Demand Prediction and Supply Analysis

As new energy sources such as solar and wind energy develop rapidly, energy storage will usher in explosive growth owing to its ability to solve the problems of intermittent power generation. Vanadium redox flow battery has the characteristics of intrinsic safety, excellent lifecycle economical efficiency, and environmental friendliness, and is ready for industrial application; therefore, such battery becomes increasingly important in the field of energy storage. This study analyzes the development trend of the vanadium redox flow battery. Considering the unit vanadium consumption of the vanadium redox flow battery, it predicts the demand trend of vanadium resources in the energy storage field under three scenarios: high-speed, reference, and low-speed development. The demand for vanadium resources will increase rapidly in the future, especially under the high-growth scenario, and the global demand for vanadium resources in 2040 will increase by 276?338 times compared with that in 2021. With the rapid development of vanadium redox flow batteries, vanadium resources will be in short supply in the future. In view of the above situations, countermeasures for ensuring the supply of vanadium resources are proposed: (1) promoting technological research regarding vanadium redox flow batteries; (2) strengthening the geological exploration of vanadium mines to explore new vanadium resources; (3) innovating the methods and technologies for extracting vanadium from vanadium-titanium magnetite to improve the utilization efficiency of vanadium resources; (4) increasing the recycling of vanadium resources; and (5) emphasizing the layout and development of overseas vanadium-titanium magnetite.