Gypsum industry news

Germany: Gebr. Pfeiffer says it is planning to use its TRT Triplex dryer to partially calcine gypsum. Testing at the Gebr. Pfeiffer test station has yielded ‘positive’ results and further installations are being considered to explore the concept. The product uses the uniflow principle, where both material and hot gasses flow in the same direction and pass through the dryer tubes from the centre outwards.

The engineering company has received an order for a TRT 5000/8.0 Triplex dryer from Shree Cement in India. The dryer will be used to dry flue gas desulphurisation (FGD) gypsum from a captive coal-power plant for use in cement plants. In the planned dryer plant the moisture of the FGD gypsum will be reduced to a residual moisture of <2%. Artificial gypsum from the dryer will be used at other cement grinding plants in the country. The 50t/hr dryer will be installed at the end of 2018 and is expected to start commercial operation in mid-2019.

Russia: Novotroitsk Soda Plant intends to start production of gypsum at its unit in the Orenburg region of the Volga district. The project has an investment of Euro32m, according to the Kommersant newspaper. The plant will produce 143,000t/yr of gypsum when it reaches full production capacity in 2021. It will also create 165 jobs when operational.

India: Larsen & Toubro has signed a long-term technical licence agreement with Japan's Chiyoda Corporation for its Chiyoda Thoroughbred 121TM (CT-121TM) flue gas desulphurisation (FGD) technology. The agreement grants L&T exclusive rights to undertake engineering, procurement and construction with this system.

The deal follows a notification by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) issued in December 2015 that placed new limits on SO2 emissions for coal-based thermal power plants. The legislation has called for mandatory installation of FGD systems in new power plants, including those currently under construction and many that are already operational.

In the CT-121TM FGD process developed by Chiyoda SO2 is absorbed from flue gas generated by coal-fired, oil-fired and other types of boilers and removed as gypsum. Unlike conventional processes in which the reagent slurry is sprayed on flue gas, the CT-121TM process uses Chiyodas unique absorber, the Jet Bubbling Reactor, in which the flue gas is blown into the reagent slurry, forming a fine bubble bed where SO2 is absorbed, oxidised by injected air, and then neutralised by ground limestone slurry.

Larsen & Toubro and Chiyoda's relationship dates back over two decades with L&T-Chiyoda Limited, a joint-venture catering to the hydrocarbon sector. Through the signing of this agreement, the two companies have extended their association into the power sector as well.

Poland: Finland's Valmet has signed a contract with CIECH Soda Polska for the supply of a flue gas desulphurization plant (FGD) to Soda Polska's Janikowo combined heat and power (CHP) plant in Poland. This is the second order of a FGD plant from CIECH Soda Polska. In August 2015, Valmet signed a contract for a similar plant for the Inowroclaw CHP plant including a Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) plant. The value of the order is around Euro20m.

"This investment will extend the lifetime of the Janikowo CHP plant and help us in complying with the Industrial Emissions Directive (IED) by decreasing our SO2 and dust emissions," said Marcin Malek, Director of Investments at CIECH Soda Polska.

The Janikowo CHP plant provides energy to the Janikowo Chemical Plant, owned by the Polish CIECH group. The CHP plant is in the national transition plan in Poland for compliance with the IED and will have to comply with tight annual emission ceilings for SO2, NOx and dust starting in 2017.

Valmet's delivery includes a wet limestone based flue gas desulphurisation (FGD) plant to remove SO2 from the flue gases of two existing coal fired steam boilers, each with 140t/hr steam capacity. The FGD is planned to be in commercial operation in September 2017.

Czech Republic/Germany: Claudius Peters has been awarded a contract from a German-Czech consortium for the delivery of a gypsum calcining plant with a capacity of 12.5t/hour for installation at a Czech power plant. Commissioning is planned for the beginning of 2016.

The scope of supply comprises a HIC (Horizontal Impact Calciner) to calcine flue gas desulfurisation (FGD) gypsum which has been ordered for the first time. The HIC has especially been developed for the calcination of synthetic gypsum. The material is further conditioned in a homogeniser with a capacity of 12.5t/hour. The material will be transported in tankers to Germany for further processing. This is the sixth homogeniser supplied by Claudius Peters.

US: Progress on two new flue gas desulphurisation (FGD) projects in Colorado and Indiana have been announced. Neumann Systems Group has completed 60% of its US$73.5m contract to install an emissions scrubbing system at the Martin Drake Power Plant in Colorado and the first stage of the Indiana-Kentucky Electric Corporation's US$670m pollution-control project at the Clifty Creek plant in Indiana is now operational. Both of these projects will increase the supply of FGD gypsum in the US.

Neumann Systems Group has a 2011 contract worth US$121m to design, build and install an emission-scrubbing system on two of the Martin Drake Power Plant's three power production units. The NeuStream system is designed to remove more than 95% of the sulphur dioxide from the emissions of the two units, as required by US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules that take effect in 2017, and convert it to gypsum that can be sold for fertiliser and building materials.

At the Indiana-Kentucky Electric Corporation's Clifty Creek Power plant in Indiana, plant officials announced that one of its two new flue gas desulphurisation scrubbers has begun feeding exhaust gas to produce cleaner emissions. These scrubbers will remove up to 98% of sulphur dioxide emissions creating synthetic gypsum. The Clifty Creek plant has six 217MW units that will feed to two scrubbers. The second scrubber is scheduled to begin operations in May 2013. The project began in 2007 but was postponed from 2009 to 2011 due to the economic downturn.