Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
Desulphogypsum produced by the neutralisation of sulphur dioxide contained in flue gases at coal-fired power stations, is<br />
currently produced at five sites in Britain. Their output of desulphogypsum is shown in the table.<br />
united Kingdom summary 2000–2004<br />
Commodity 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004<br />
Tonnes £ thousand<br />
gypsum and plaster<br />
Production<br />
Gypsum, natural (a) 1 500 000 (a) 1 700 000 (a) 1 700 000 (a) 1 700 000 1 686 000<br />
Imports<br />
Gypsum–<br />
Gypsum 492 422 755 112 (b) 234 397 (b) 47 751 (b) 64 043 14 501 10 390 6 944 8 603 8 160<br />
Calcined gypsum (plasters) 62 728 31 481 (b) 412 492 (b) 855 317 (b) 163 025 9 231 6 029 7 576 8 441 8 780<br />
Exports<br />
Gypsum–<br />
Gypsum 9 709 3 049 14 460 2 601 3 814 657 459 692 463 560<br />
Calcined gypsum (plasters) 31 474 29 474 44 827 39 515 49 710 7 894 7 505 10 283 8 689 11 559<br />
(a) BGS estimates. (b) Large quantities of gypsum are imported into the UK. These appear<br />
to have been wrongly classified as calcined gypsum (plasters).<br />
Thousand tonnes<br />
1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005<br />
Drax 320 510 549 323 483 565 506 485 699 653 565<br />
Ratcliffe-on-Soar 280 300 296 278 220 260 291 358 384 350 235<br />
West Burton — — — — — — — — — 274 …<br />
Eggborough — — — — — — — — — — …<br />
Cottam — — — — — — — — — — …<br />
total 600 810 845 510 703 825 797 843 1 083 1 228 …<br />
The FGD plant at the 2000 MW West Burton power station in Nottinghamshire, which is owned by EDF Energy, came on stream<br />
in December 2003. The new plant produced 274 000 tonnes of desulphogypsum in 2004 of which 225 000 tonnes was sold<br />
for plasterboard manufacture. FGD capacity has also being fitted to two of the four units at the Eggborough 2000 MW station in<br />
North Yorkshire and FGD plant has been retrofitted to EDF Energy’s 2000 MW Cottam station in Nottinghamshire; these were<br />
commissioned in 2005. Additional FGD plants are being planned for several other coal-fired power stations in the UK.<br />
The amount of desulphogypsum produced at FGD plants is dependent on two main factors: the electricity output of the station and the<br />
amount of sulphur in the coal. About 0.7 tonnes of high purity limestone are required for each tonne of desulphogypsum produced.<br />
Synthetic gypsum is also produced by the neutralisation of acid effluent from the manufacture of titanium dioxide by the sulphate<br />
process at Huntsman Tioxide Ltd’s plant at Grimsby. Production of white titanogypsum is used by Knauf for the manufacture<br />
of plasterboard at their Immingham plant. UK titanogypsum production reduced by half in 2004 (to approx. 100 000 tonnes per<br />
year) due to a reduction in plant capacity.<br />
hafnium<br />
united Kingdom summary 2000–2004<br />
Commodity 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004<br />
Tonnes £ thousand<br />
hafnium<br />
Imports 9 2 2 7 3 537 327 320 217 285<br />
Exports 1 2 ... 11 57 48 169 248 66 242<br />
53
Change language