eprintid: 10154913 rev_number: 7 eprint_status: archive userid: 699 dir: disk0/10/15/49/13 datestamp: 2022-09-02 09:56:49 lastmod: 2022-09-02 09:56:49 status_changed: 2022-09-02 09:56:49 type: article metadata_visibility: show sword_depositor: 699 creators_name: Maslin, Mark creators_name: Van Heerde, Livia creators_name: Day, Simon title: Sulfur: A potential resource crisis that could stifle green technology and threaten food security as the world decarbonises ispublished: inpress divisions: C03 divisions: F26 divisions: B03 divisions: UCL keywords: climate change, fossil fuels, mining resources, sulfur, sulfuric acid note: Copyright © 2022 The Authors. The Geographical Journal published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers). This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract: Sulfur in the form of sulfuric acid is a crucial part of our modern industrial society. It is required for the production of phosphorus fertiliser and manufacturing lightweight electric motors and high-performance lithium-ion batteries. Over 246 million tonnes of sulfuric acid are used annually. Rapid growth in the green economy and intensive agriculture could see demand increase to over 400 million tonnes by 2040. Today over 80% of the global sulfur supply comes from desulfurisation of fossil fuels to reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2) gas. Decarbonisation of the global economy to deal with climate change will greatly reduce the production of fossil fuels. This will create a shortfall in the annual supply of sulfuric acid of between 100 and 320 million tonnes by 2040, depending on how quickly decarbonisation occurs. Unless action is taken to reduce the need for sulfuric acid, a massive increase in environmentally damaging mining will be required to fill this resource demand. date: 2022-08-21 date_type: published publisher: Wiley official_url: https://doi.org/10.1111/geoj.12475 oa_status: green full_text_type: pub language: eng primo: open primo_central: open_green verified: verified_manual elements_id: 1973776 doi: 10.1111/geoj.12475 lyricists_name: Maslin, Mark lyricists_id: MAMAS08 actors_name: Flynn, Bernadette actors_id: BFFLY94 actors_role: owner full_text_status: public publication: The Geographical Journal issn: 0016-7398 citation: Maslin, Mark; Van Heerde, Livia; Day, Simon; (2022) Sulfur: A potential resource crisis that could stifle green technology and threaten food security as the world decarbonises. The Geographical Journal 10.1111/geoj.12475 <https://doi.org/10.1111/geoj.12475>. (In press). Green open access document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10154913/1/Sulfur%20-A%20potential%20resource%20crisis%20that%20could%20stifle%20green%20technology.pdf