Thallium pollution from Lithium Mining and the Urgent Need to Address It.

[NNadir]

This opinion piece is from one of the scientific journals I regularly read, the current issue: Thallium Pollution from the Lithium Industry Calls for Urgent International Action on Regulations Juan Liu, Wenhuan Yuan, Ke Lin, Jin Wang, Christian Sonne, and Jörg Rinklebe
Environmental Science & Technology 2023 57 (48), 19099-19101

The opinion piece gives out the seldom challenged but nevertheless nonsensical inclusion of energy storage as so called "green energy." The laws of thermodynamics, which are not going to be repealed by appeal to wishful thinking are laws of physics, and a statement of the 2nd (inviolable) law is that storing energy wastes energy. The problem before humanity is to produce sustainable primary energy, not to play with Rube Goldberg schemes to pretend that storing energy with batteries, and worse, the very, very, very stupid hydrogen stuff that flies around all the time is the same as producing energy.

Although I'm not a fan of the "batteries will save us" scam, and I'm well aware of the material limitations, of which lithium is just a subset, I was unaware of the thallium issue with lithium mining. Thallium is an element in the periodic table that has been used as rat poison, although it is now banned for this purpose since it accumulates.

From the text:

Thallium (Tl) is a rare and very toxic heavy metal, which is classified as one of the priority pollutants by the European Water Framework and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and it is listed in China’s latest catalog of key heavy metals for prevention, with stringent drinking water quality limits ranging from 0.1 to 2 μg/L. (1−3) However, technical challenges associated with precise Tl measurements pose a significant obstacle to routine surveillance for Tl pollution in most countries. (3) The escalating global attention to increasing Tl pollution is driven by its potential for high enrichment in various sulfides and contributing to its release into the aqueous environment through traditional industrial activities such as coal combustion, cement production, and metal mining and smelting. (3,4) Despite the ongoing global shift toward green energy technologies with low carbon emissions, which may reduce the scale of traditional industries and subsequently Tl emissions, the reliance on lithium (Li) production for green energy introduces new challenges. It is worth noting that high enrichment of Tl (even reaching 40 mg/kg) has been found in Li ores, possibly due to Tl’s lithophilic properties. (5,6) In addition, the current growing needs for clean energy technologies have driven escalating demands for Li production worldwide, which has recently witnessed a staggering 256% increase. (7)

In the meantime, there should be growing concern that soaring growth in Li production may dramatically increase Tl contamination in the surface environment if no regulations are implemented for Tl pollution control during the manufacturing and supply of Li. Recent reports highlight excessive environmental Tl levels not only in industrial effluent from Li production facilities (8) but also in debris or “gangue” left in evaporation ponds for Li extraction processes. (9) High levels of Tl have also been found in leachate from some discarded rechargeable Li batteries. (10) All of these new findings indicate that Li-related production and end-of-life consumer waste (batteries) can lead to environmental pollution and adversely affect human health due to potentially Tl-containing toxic materials. Worse still, predictions suggest that global demand for Li resources will continue to surge by 5–40 times from 2020 to 2040, (11) ultimately reaching a peak in Li production of >700 000 Mt in 2041. (7)

This situation emphasizes the need for increased international collaboration to evaluate and critically limit environmental pollution from Tl during Li production and its life cycle. Considering the prevalence of Li production, the associated risk of Tl pollution is poised to escalate significantly in the coming decades...

The use of the word "green" to describe technologies that are not even remotely sustainable, and which in fact rob all future generations of their rights to this planet, is one of the most dire abuses of language known.

Have a nice day tomorrow.