A new Vanadium supply cloud formingIn 2020 the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) lowered sulphur specification in bunker fuels for maritime vessels from 3,5% to 0,5%.
> IMO regulation < In order to meet the more stringent limit, refineries use catalytic converters to remove sulphur from the fuels. These catalysts not only remove sulphur, but also other elements like Vanadium, Nickel and Iron. After the useful life of these catalysts, the valuable metals can be recovered.
Companies that specialise in extraction of metals from spent catalysts form partnerships with oil refineries to develop a new source of valuable elements like Vanadium. AMG for example has formed a partnership with Shell to do exactly this.
> AMG-Shell partnership < As Terry Perles points out, there is a tremendous surge in the amount of spent catalysts containing Vanadium expected in the coming years. These secondary projects extracting Vanadium from spent catalysts can come to market sooner than primary Vanadium projects as they do not have to develop a mine, require much lower capital investment and can be built quicker.
"I think in the near term some of the secondary projects can come to market sooner, they don’t have to develop a mine, they have a smaller footprint in terms of capital investment and the facilities can be built quicker"
> Listen to Terry starting 27:50 < Bottom line: A new source of Vanadium is coming online and this will have a meaningful effect on supply/demand!
What the exact operating costs will look like, remains to be seen. One definitely should keep a close eye on this as it has the potential to shift the balance of Vanadium sources.
| Terry Perles at 2023 Vanitec meeting: Last year the Int. Maritime Organisation lowered sulphur specification in bunker fuel from 3,5% to 0.5%.and what this means is that in the past bunker fuel for ocean going vessels was basically the heavy bottoms from the oil refineries blended together but now to meet the new sulphur limitations all of these heavy bottoms need to be processed in desulphurisation catalytic applications. And that means there is a tremendous surge in spent catalyst containing vanadium coming to the market in the next few years. […] I think in the near term some of the secondary projects can come to market sooner, they don’t have to develop a mine, they have a smaller footprint in terms of capital investment and the facilities can be built quicker. |