Sharp rise in synthetic gypsum consumption

Natural gypsum is the most common form of gypsum used around the world but consumption of synthetic material has started to rise sharply, especially in Europe and North America. The most commonly used type of synthetic gypsum is produced by flue gas desulphurisation (FGD) equipment at coal-fired power stations. Other forms of synthetic gypsum, such as titanogypsum, fluorogypsum and phosphygypsum can be used, but levels of impurities and the local availability of natural gypsum affect demand. Consumption of synthetic gypsum, especially FGD gypsum, in industrialised countries started to rise in the 1990s and is expected to continue to do so. This rise was caused by two main factors affecting electricity companies: the introduction of environmental legislation in the 1980s, and the rising cost of disposal of coal combustion products. Global consumption of gypsum in all its forms was estimated at 149Mt in 2003. The main market for natural gypsum is as a retarder in Portland cement, especially in industrialising economies where production of calcined gypsum products is much smaller than the developed economies. In 2003, cement production consumed an estimated 76Mt of gypsum. Plasterboard and plaster production was estimated to have accounted for 58.5t, and the other main market for gypsum was in agriculture, where an estimated 6.5Mt was used. Cement will continue to be the main market for gypsum, despite the recent increases in plasterboard capacity in North America, Europe and Asia. Over the next five years consumption of FGD gypsum will rise at a faster rate than most other forms of gypsum.

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