Process using sulphate reagent for recovering vanadium from cokes derived from heavy oils

Claim 1

A process for the recovery of vanadium from a sulphur-containing material of the group consisting of coke derived from oil and ash obtained from said coke, wherein said hydrocarbonaceous oil is heavy oil, in-situ oil sands bitumen or mineable oil sands bitumen, comprising: (a) mixing said material with an alkali metal sulphate reagent in a finely divided form, (b) heating the mixture in the presence of an oxidizing atmosphere at an elevated temperature below the fusion point of the reagent, (c) contacting the resulting solid residue with water, thereby forming a leach solution consisting essentially of water and sodium vanadate compounds, and (d) recovering the vanadium values from the leach solution, the amount of said alkali metal sulphate being sufficient to convert the vanadium values present in said material into alkali metal vanadate and to maintain said leach solution substantially free of reagent.