@Prime1 have a good read. I cant believe you just wrote that..
Boomberg Technology said
"As more environmentally conscious Americans do their bit to help clear the air by paying up for an eco-friendly Prius or a sporty Tesla, a damaging form of polluted rain is falling in China.
The link is graphite, a vital component in batteries used in Tesla’s Model S, Toyota’s plug-in Prius and other electric cars, as well as in electronic gadgets including iPhones. It’s mostly mined and processed in China where graphite pollution has fouled air and water, damaged crops and raised health concerns. Now, in response, Chinese authorities are closing dozens of graphite mines and processors in a bid for cleaner air even as global demand for the commodity is surging.
“There’s little question that the Chinese are between a rock and a hard place environmentally,” said Josh Landess, an advanced transportation analyst with Bloomberg New Energy Finance. “There’s an obvious irony that the disruption it’s causing is within the clean vehicle and transportation industry.”
The graphite outcry is the latest among environmental flashpoints in China that have ranged from lead poisoning to acid spills and “unbearable smog” in big cities. And while the clampdown may help improve the quality of China’s environment, it could also affect as much as a third of worldwide production.
As many as 55 graphite operations were suspended in Shandong province, which controls 10 percent of global supply, in December last year on a range of environmental breaches. The government intervention could easily extend to other poorly-run producers in Heilongjiang Province, said Credit Suisse Group AG analyst Michael Slifirski.
More damaging than the graphite rain, the silver dust that falls from carelessly managed mines, is the hydrochloric acid used in China to process raw graphite into a usable form. The acid is highly corrosive and when released untreated as waste water into the environment is
harmful to all forms of life."
Wealth Daily said:
Remember the “acid rain” fallout in the Great Lakes region of the U.S. and Canada in the 1980s? Pollutants spewed from industrial smoke stacks would rise into the atmosphere, get zapped by the sun’s rays, mix with water vapor, and then rain back down to Earth with acidic toxicity. China is experiencing a similar fallout from its graphite mining operations, known as “graphite rain” — a silvery dust that blankets farms and water reservoirs for miles around each mine. Then there is the hydrochloric acid used to process graphite ore — a highly corrosive acid that kills fish, sickens humans, and destroys crops.
“The corn we grow is covered with black pollutants,” informs a farmer on the outskirts of the city of Jixi in the province of Heilongjiang. “One of my clients even rejected my corn, saying it held too much lead.”
Rivers that serve as the only freshwater supply for residents and farms will at times turn muddy from the falling graphite ash. Even after filtration through thick sponge mats, the water still comes out yellow. Samples showed mercury levels nine times above acceptable amounts, with lead content a horrifying 700 times the national limit.
After decades of criticism from scientists, environmental groups, and even other nations urging China to do something about its dense smog and toxic rivers, China’s government finally seems to be getting its act together.
Leading up to last December, China has already suspended as many as 55 graphite operations in Shandong province, which controls 10% of global supply.
And with dozens more graphite mines and processing plants scheduled for closure — some temporarily, others permanently — manufacturers are getting nervous.
Magnis said
"In testing for some graphite applications, chemical treatment via a caustic bake (300oC) acid leach process with no hydrofluoric acid (HF) or hydrochloric acid (HCl) was applied to the flotation concentrate product. The chemically purified graphite generated measured 99.8% TGC and expansion of the +300 and +180 micron products resulted in respective expansion weights of 2.3 g/L and 4.6 g/L. Whilst this demonstrates the ability to make low halide content expanded graphite from Nachu, there is further work at hand at decreasing the environmental footprint of the purification step. Nevertheless, the caustic bake/acid leach process uses relatively benign chemicals and produces wastes that are readily treated in an environmentally acceptable manner."
Prime1 said
"It figures. KOH is unaware of the facts of industrial life in a modern society. The US is currently either the largest or the second largest producer and consumer of acids, for routine industrial processes, on the planet. These include hydrochloric, sulphuric, nitric and hydrofluoric acids (among others) - bog-standard industrial chemicals, which underpin our modern society, and are a critical element of our modern civilisation. In the US, they have effective, successful, environmental controls, which enable companies to use these acids, in their everyday operations, without polluting the air or the water. It can be done; it is being done, in nearly every major city in the world. Anybody who is not conscious of this must have been living in a cave for the last hundred years.
It's time to get away from the synthetic shock! horror!, and the pretence that simple chemicals are anything else than an essential component of our 21st century world. What planet are you living on?"
(20min delay)