Taiyo Koko Launches New Factory for High Purity Metallic Vanadium

Taiyo Koko, Japanese major maker of molybdenum and vanadium product maker, held a completion ceremony of a new factory and an electron beam furnace to produce high-purity metallic vanadium on 3 October. The new factory was constructed inside the firm’s Ako plant, Hyogo, Japan. The firm established the first integrated production system in Japan for metallic vanadium with more than 99.9% purity, low oxygen and nitride.

Construction of the factory building and the EB furnace were completed in August 2008. Taiyo Koko also established another factory to fabricate vanadium into the products such as powder. The total investment is 600 million yen.

Ako plant has collected and refined valuable metals including vanadium and molybdenum from used desulfuration agent generating in oil refineries. The firm has offered the process to separate metallic vanadium from an intermediate material (aluminium-vanadium alloy) to the outer company. The firm now became to implement the separation process by themselves thanks to introduction of the EB furnace.

The output capacity of the new factory is 3 tonnes per month. The firm will initially produce the products at 1 tonne per month. Taiyo Koko aims to expand the output by cultivating new applications such as hydrogen storing alloy or hydrogen permeable film for fuel batteries.