So Sulfur's important because it's used for sulfuric acid which is needed for almost all modern chemistry. This includes munitions and fertilizers, which are, honestly, basically the same thing chemically speaking.
https://mwi.westpoint.edu/the-choke...hormuz-and-the-threats-to-military-readiness/ Oh look, Westpoint published two Fridays ago.
This is NOT just about oil.
"The near-total disruption of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, which accounts for approximately 50 percent of global seaborne sulfur trade flows, has compounded an already tight market. US sulfur prices have increased 165 percent year-over-year to over $650 per metric ton; and now the price has surged by 25 percent just since the Iran war began."
On defense specifically: "The United States consumes about 90 percent of sulfur as sulfuric acid, and sulfuric acid enables production that sustains not only economic function, but also modern warfighting."
On semiconductors: "Ultra-high-purity sulfuric acid is indispensable for cleaning and etching the silicon wafers needed to make the most advanced microchips, directly impacting everything from F-35 avionics to the guidance system in any interceptor or missile. The disruption in sulfur supply is more than a mining issue; it is an active threat to the US military's entire digital and computing architecture."
On the structural trap: "Sulfur is overwhelmingly a byproduct of processing sour natural gas and crude oil, not a commodity that can be scaled independently in a defense emergency." To sneedsplain: You can't just mine more sulfur nearly as easily. It comes out when you refine oil. If the oil isn't moving, the sulfur isn't either. Sure you can make it from Gypsum but that's a mess and expensive.
The part that makes my eyes bleed:
Only 6% of US defense contractors have fully transparent supply chains.
This was authored by Jahara Matisek, a Chairforce sperg who happens to be the Dean of Academics at the U.S. Naval War College. Command pilot with 3,700 hours, 120+ published articles, and fellowships at 6 institutions. He probably knows what he's talking about.
Logistics win wars, full stop. EVERYONE'S logistics are slowly approaching fucked with turbo-fucked as a possibility, so that's a silver lining. Nobody's going to be able to make more weapons for a while. The USA is almost certainly the most resilient and able to pull something out of its ass, so we might pull ahead if we manage this correctly. Unfortunately, I don't know if the bureaucrats are going to do this on their own, or if someone tells Trump to yell at them about it, because Trump isn't a chem nerd, he's a real estate guy and a deal maker.
This isn't his job to know, and I don't know if anyone knows it's his job to tell him.
Fun times.
EDIT: the part where Sneed spergs at the EPA:
Phosphogypsum is a byproduct from making phosphate. If you react it with some ammonium carbonate, you get calcium carbonate (agri lime) and ammonium sulfate:
CaSO₄ + (NH₄)₂CO₃ → (NH₄)₂SO₄ + CaCO₃
Florida's got a
BILLION TONS OF PHOSPHOGYPSUM. The EPA said you can't touch it because of naturally occurring radium-226 and uranium-238 trace concentrations in the phosphate rock. 20-60 picocuries per gram of this shit, barely any, and mostly 20-30 picocuries per gram.
The risk is in a confined space there's decay into Radon. So basically don't put it in an ventilated basement. USE IT OUTSIDE LOL. Plenty of basements in Colorado, Iowa, and Pennsylvania run 10-20 picocuries per liter of air and people live in them their whole lives. Some hit 100. The EPA says to run a fan if it's over 4. Sigh.
Spreading phosphogypsum on a cornfield in Iowa exposes you to less additional radiation than the radon already in your Iowa basement and the EPA only cares about the cornfield. Thanks guys.
Brazil uses phosphogypsum in road construction. Japan uses it in cement. Europe uses it in agriculture with monitoring.
We need to unleash the spreadsheet spergs already and get rid of the furry/faggot/identity/gender spergs already, fucking hell.
