The Mode of Occurrence of Vanadium (V) in Sinanpaşa coal (Afyonkarahisar, Türkiye)

Considering it is feasible to extract and offer a wealth of domestic resources, coal resources, one of Turkey's most vital energy resources, continue to be in higher demand yearly. Considerable research has been put into investigating the possibility of removing critical elements such as rare earth elements, U, V, Ga, Ge, etc. from coal mines in the context of promoting environmental sustainability and renewable energy options. Vanadium stands out as a particularly significant resource among these elements. Due to its many uses, including vanadium redox batteries, the transition metal vanadium shows great promise. In this context, Sinanpaşa (Afyonkarahisar, Türkiye) coal occurrences can attract attention to the economic possibilities of vanadium related to the Plio-Miocene aged extensional tectonic regime. The studied outcrop coal samples were collected for analysis. The vanadium contents of studied coals are up to 274 μg/g. The vanadium in this basin is considered a strata-hosted V-U deposition. The V element positively correlated with As, Mo, U, and P. There is a lack of correlation with REE, Th, Cr, Fe, Ni, Al, and Si. These elements are mostly mobilized by hydrothermal fluids percolating through highly permeable volcanic and volcanoclastic rocks. The mediocre to high As values indicate the effect of meteoric hydrothermal solutions that were expelled from cooling felsic-volcanic rocks. The precipitation process, on the other hand, is triggered by the extreme reducing conditions that took place in the upper parts of coal seams and it can be supported by high values of Mo and S contents. On the contrary rare earths excluding Ce and fluid immobile Zr are pretty low, and the detrital contribution is not very high. The Ce enrichment is probably caused by the terrestrial sediments that contain immobile Ce+4 ions that moved into the coalification environment.