Anthropogenic antimony flow analysis and evaluation in China

Jianwen Chu; Jiansu Mao; Mengchang He

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.05.293

Anthropogenic antimony flow analysis and evaluation in China

Sci Total Environ. 2019 Sep 15:683:659-667. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.05.293. Epub 2019 May 21.

Authors

Jianwen Chu¹, Jiansu Mao¹, Mengchang He²

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Water Environment Simulation, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, PR China.
² State Key Laboratory of Water Environment Simulation, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, PR China. Electronic address: hemc@bnu.edu.cn.

PMID: 31150886
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.05.293

Abstract

China is facing a shortage of antimony (Sb) resources, and Sb emissions are worsening. In exploring solutions to these issues, this paper attempts to apply substance flow analysis (SFA) to track Sb flow among the lithosphere, anthroposphere, and biosphere in China. The results are as follows: (1) China's Sb ore faces the risk of depletion. Although China has the largest Sb reserves in the world, the import of Sb concentrate accounted for a large proportion of the total material input during the production stage, which has increased from 9.78% in 2006 to 30.22% in 2016. Moreover, since 2013, the net export rate of Sb products during the manufacture and fabrication (M&F) stage has been growing, reaching 21.32% in 2016. (2) The Sb industry is highly dependent on ores. Moreover, the resource efficiency and cycling ratio of Sb are quite low. (3) Sb emissions cannot be ignored in industrial processes, particularly Sb emissions from the M&F and usage stages. Sb emissions discharged into the biosphere reached 1915.58 Gg in the period from 2006 to 2016.

Keywords: Antimony; China; Stocks and flows; Substance flow analysis.