Iodine production sources

As part of the biogeochemical cycle, the injection of iodine-containing gases into the atmosphere, and their subsequent chemical transformation therein, play a crucial role in environmental and health aspects associated with iodine - most importandy, in determining the quantity of the element available to the mammalian diet. This chapter focuses on these processes and the variety of gas- and aerosol-phase species that constitute the terrestrial iodine cycle, through discussion of the origin and measurement of atmospheric iodine in its various forms ( Sources and Measurements of Atmospheric Iodine ), the principal photo-chemical pathways in the gas phase ( Photolysis and Gas-Phase Iodine Chemistry ), and the role of aerosol uptake and chemistry and new particle production ( Aerosol Chemistry and Particle Formation ). Potential health and environmental issues related to atmospheric iodine are also reviewed ( Health and Environment Impacts ), along with discussion of the consequences of the release of radioactive iodine (1-131) into the air from nuclear reactor accidents and weapons tests that have occurred over the past half-century or so ( Radioactive Iodine Atmospheric Sources and Consequences ). 

Vikis and MacFarlane (1985) reported on reaction rates between I2 and O3 and the resultant formation of solid-phase iodine oxide aerosol. Coming from the opposite direction to the earlier work of Hamilton et al. (1963), this led the authors to suggest that the addition of O3 to nuclear reactor environments should be considered as a practical route for the removal of air-borne radioactive iodine species produced as fission by-products (see Radioactive Iodine Atmospheric Sources and Consequences ). 

Today, iodine production is conducted in areas where brines from natural gas and oil fields contain high iodine concentrations. One of these sources is the brine from the Southern Kanto gas field in Japan, which contains approximately 100 ppm of iodine. 

However, worldwide the largest production source of iodine is the Atacama Desert in Chile. In addition to nitrate, the mineral caliche contains considerable amounts of iodate, which by reduction with sulfur dioxide and an intermolecu-lar redox reaction (comproportionation) is converted into elementary iodine. The iodine produced is supplied to the market as a flaked, granulated, or prilled solid, with a purplish-black metallic lustre. [83]... 

Iodized Salt. Iodized table salt has been used to provide supplemental iodine to the U.S. population since 1924, when producers, in cooperation with the Michigan State Medical Society (24), began a voluntary program of salt iodization in Michigan that ultimately led to the elimination of iodine deficiency in the United States. More than 50% of the table salt sold in the United States is iodized. Potassium iodide in table salt at levels of 0.006% to 0.01% KI is one of two sources of iodine for food-grade salt approved by the U.S. Food and Dmg Administration. The other, cuprous iodide, is not used by U.S. salt producers. Iodine may be added to a food so that the daily intake does not exceed 225 p.g for adults and children over four years of age. Potassium iodide is unstable under conditions of extreme moisture and temperature, particularly in an acid environment. Sodium carbonate or sodium bicarbonate is added to increase alkalinity, and sodium thiosulfate or dextrose is added to stabilize potassium iodide. Without a stabilizer, potassium iodide is oxidized to iodine and lost by volatilization from the product. Potassium iodate, far more stable than potassium iodide, is widely used in other parts of the world, but is not approved for use in the United States. 

Occurrence. Iodine [7553-56-2] is widely distributed in the Hthosphere at low concentrations (about 0.3 ppm) (32). It is present in seawater at a concentration of 0.05 ppm (33). Certain marine plants concentrate iodine to higher levels than occur in the sea brine these plants have been used for their iodine content. A significant source of iodine is caUche deposits of the Atacama Desert, Chile. About 40% of the free world s iodine was produced in Japan from natural gas wells (34), but production from Atacama Desert caUche deposits is relatively inexpensive and on the increase. By 1992, Chile was the primary world producer. In the United States, underground brine is the sole commercial source of iodine (35). Such brine can be found in the northern Oklahoma oil fields originating in the Mississippian geological system (see Iodine and iodine compounds). 

The ultraviolet lamps used in the photochlorination process serve to dissociate the chlorine into free radicals and start the radical-chain reaction. Other radical sources, such as 2,2 -a2obisisobutyronitrile, have been used (63,64). Primary by-products of the photochlorination process include 1,1,2-trichloroethane (15—20%), tetrachloroethanes, and pentachloroethane. Selectivity to 1,1,1-trichloroethane is higher in vapor-phase chlorination. Various additives, most containing iodine or an aromatic ring in the molecule, have been used to increase the selectivity of the reaction to... 

The isotopic purity of the product is usually about 48-62%, the rest of the material being mainly undeuterated. (An alternate preparation of a-mono-deuterio ketones of high configurational and isotopic purity is the mild oxidation of cis- or tra 5-deuterated alcohols under Jones conditions, see sections V-D and VII-A.) Treatment with zinc in acetic acid-OD has also been applied to the deiodination of 2a-iodoandrost-4-ene-3,17-dione. In a slightly modified version the iodine in 19-iodocholesterol acetate has been replaced with tritium by using tritium oxide as the isotope source/... 

Packer et al. (1981) found that y-irradiation reduces arenediazonium tetrafluoro-borates to aryl radicals. Packer and Taylor (1985) investigated the y-irradiation of 4-chlorobenzenediazonium tetrafluoroborate by a 60Co source in the presence of 1 alone or I- +13 . The major product in the presence of iodide was 4,4 -dichloroazo-benzene. With I- + 1 ", however, it was 4-chloroiodobenzene. Two other investigations of the reactivity of aryl radicals with iodine-containing species are important for the understanding of the chain process of iodo-de-diazoniation that starts after formation of the aryl radical. Kryger et al. (1977) showed that, in the thermal decomposition of phenylazotriphenylmethane, the rate of iodine abstraction from I2 is extremely fast (see also Ando, 1978, p. 341). Furthermore, evidence for the formation of the radical anion V2 was reported by Beckwith and Meijs (1987) and by Abey-wickrema and Beckwith (1987) (see Sec. 10.11). 

Our production parameters for this generator are presented. The Xe-122/l-122 combination, a convenient source of a short-lived (3.6m) positron emitting iodine, is also discussed. Recent developments in rapid iodination procedures will broaden the potential applications of this generator. Finally, preliminary investigations of another generator derived radionuclide that may have promise is described. Tellurium-118 (6d) is the parent of the 3.5 minute positron emitter Sb-118 which may be useful for first pass angiography. 

Formerly all the iodine was made from the ash of seaweed, and potash was a remunerative appendix to the iodine industry but just as the Stassfurt salts killed those industries which extracted potash from other sources, so did the separation of iodine from the caliche mother-liquors threaten the industrial extraction of iodine from seaweed with extinction. Iodine in a very crude form was exported from Chili in 1874—e.g. a sample was reported with iodine 52-5 per cent. iodine chloride, 3-3 sodium iodate, 13 potassium and sodium nitrate and sulphate, 15 9 magnesium chloride, 0 4 insoluble matter, 1 5 water, 25-2 per cent. About that time much of the iodine was imported as cuprous iodide. This rendered necessary the purification of the Chilian product but now the iodine is purified in Chili before it is exported. The capacity of the Chilian nitre works for the extraction of iodine is greater than the world s demand. It is said that the existing Chilian factories could produce about 5100 tons of iodine per annum whereas the... 

Alain at AJainic Arid 15 a protein of marine algae and is found in many seaweeds. Its principal source of prepn is as a by-product of the extraction of iodine from kelp, principally from Laminaria digitata. It has been used mainly in Japan, for the prepn of films, fabric dressing, and for thickening jellies. 

The mechanism for the reaction is believed to be as shown in Eq. 15.170 (start with CH3OH, lower right, and end with CHjCOOH, lower left).180 The reaction can be initiated with any rhodium salt, e.g., RhCl3, and a source of iodine, the two combining with CO to produce the active catalyst, IRItfCO y. The methyl iodide arises from the reaction of methanol and hydrogen iodide. Note that the catalytic loop involves oxidative addition, insertion, and reductive elimination, with a net production of acetic acid from the insertion of carbon monoxide into methanol. The rhodium shuttles between the +1 and +3 oxidation states. The cataylst is so efficient that the reaction will proceed at atmospheric pressure, although in practice the system is... 

C. 1983. Sources and content of iodine in California milk and dairy products. J. Food Protection 46, 41-46. 

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