An Inventory of Fluorspar Production, Industrial Use, and Emissions of Trifluoroacetic Acid (TFA) in the Period 1930 to 1999

An inventory has been published for the period of 1930-1999 accounting for most of the fluorspar production (86%) and estimating emissions of TFA. Industrial emissions of TFA are estimated as 230,000 to 470,000 tonnes for this period. The paper explains that industrial sources of TFA can only result from the use of fluoride minerals in industrial processes. Major industrial uses of fluorspar started significant expansion from about the same time (1930s). Significant other industrial uses of fluorides were not identified that could account for the large burden of TFA in the oceans. There is a generally accepted conclusion that TFA does occur naturally, in part based on the large quantities of TFA in the oceans (61 - 205 million tonnes, measured in 1998-2002). However, the recent review paper “Insufficient evidence for the existence of natural trifluoroacetic acid”(S. Joudan, A. O. De Silva and C. J. Young, Environ. Sci.: Processes Impacts, 2021, 23, 1641 DOI: 10.1039/D1EM00306B) concludes that “the presence of TFA in the deep ocean and lack of closed TFA budget is not sufficient evidence that TFA occurs naturally, especially without a reasonable mechanism of formation”. The inventory provides complementary evidence that the quantity of TFA in the oceans must include a large natural burden.

The inventory has been published as an open access peer-reviewed paper in the Journal of Geoscience and Environment Protection, Vol.11 No.3, March 2023 “An Inventory of Fluorspar Production, Industrial Use, and Emissions of Trifluoroacetic Acid (TFA) in the Period 1930 to 1999” https://doi.org/10.4236/gep.2023.113001.