Salable FGD chemical production through national SO/sub 2/ emission inventory reduction

Due to possible site constraints, customary throwaway-disposal type management of collected wastes may be impractical at large existing coal-fired plants that could be targeted for retrofitting of SO/sub 2/ controls using FGD. A projected 5 to 12 million ton reduction in eastern-USA annual SO/sub 2/ emission inventory under consideration in Congress would be expected to result in appreciable volumes of available by-products including gypsum, commercial sulfuric acid, and elemental sulfur, notwithstanding generic economic assessments that would invariably favor the typical US throwaway-waste mode. Individual power plant sources to be controlled, if equipped with by-product FGD, could in some cases yield as much as 50,000 tons per year of usable gypsum, or 500,000 tons per year of commercial sulfuric acid, or 170,000 tons per year of elemental sulfur. An assessment of available chemical markets indicates that if necessary in order to facilitate use of FGD at a specific eastern plant targeted for SO/sub 2/ control, a yield of gypsum or sulfuric acid may in some instances provide a viable means for managing the SO/sub 2/-catch. Since the FGD technology for usable gypsum production is very similar to the limestone forced-oxidation throwaway mode presently in favor by the electric utilities industry, gypsummore » may be expected to be the first by-product choice when there is a plaster wallboard plant in the region of sufficient capacity to consume it. In view of continuing strong trends in worldwide and national markets for elemental sulfur, however, it appears that economical technology for elemental-sulfur yielding FGD could provide advantageous flexibility, both logistically and economically, to achieve.« less