The Element Called Boron

How Boron is formed? It is mostly formed through the weathering rocks, boric acid, seawater, and volcanic activity. This element is also exhumed from wood burnt as fuel, power production utilizing coal and oil, glass product. The production of Boron exploits the convenient availability of borates. The earliest means to elemental Boron involved reduction of boric acid oxide with metals such as magnesium or aluminum. However, the product is almost always contaminated with metal borides. Pure Boron can be made by reducing volatile Boron halides with Hydrogen at high temperature.

According to Biology, borates have low toxicity in mammals which is similar to table salt. A boron-containing natural antibiotic is known. Small amount of boron compounds play a strengthening role in the cell walls of all plants, making Boron a vital in element in soils. Many experiments indicate a role for boron as an ultra-trace element in animals, however the nature of its role in animal physiology in unknown.

Moreover, the chief source of both boron and borates is the mining of boron-containing minerals like ascolemannite, ulexite, tincal, and kernite. Only certain deposits can be mined economically. And these are situated in the arid regions of Turkey and USA, some in Chile, China, Peru and Argentina.

The total world production of boron minerals was approximately 2,750,000 tons in 1994. About 250,000 tons of boron, corresponding to 800,000 tons of boron oxide (B2O3) was present in industrial borate products and substances manufactures from these minerals.

Boron comes into the environment primarily through natural process and from human activities. Boron releases through natural processes: from Boron-containing rocks through weathering, from seawater, as boric acid vapor and from volcanic activity and other geothermal releases such as geothermal steam. On the other hand, Boron releases through human activities: agriculture use, mainly from the use of borate-containing fertilizers and herbicides, burning of domestic waste, crop residue and wood fuel. Boron is also present in many plants being necessary for their growth. The power generation using fossil fuels such as coal and oil, waste from borate mining and processing, including the manufacture of glass products, another is, the use of borates in the home and in corporate.