Gypsum industry news

Serbia: Japan-based Mitsubishi Power has installed all major equipment and completed 96% of construction of a €220m flue gas desulphurisation installation at state-owned utilities provider EPS’ Nikola Tesla B coal-fired power plant in Belgrade. EPS will supply gypsum generated by the system for use in local construction. The Japan International Cooperation Agency supplied financial support for the project.

Mitsubishi Power previously commenced trials of a similar system at the neighbouring Nikola Tesla A power plant in April 2024.

Montenegro: UK-based private equity firm Chayton Capital has agreed to fund the feasibility study for the establishment of a joint public/private building materials production complex at the site of the Plejevlja energy hub. The complex will include a gypsum wallboard plant. Emerging Market Watch News has reported that the firm will also be involved in the modernisation of a coal-fired power plant at the site. The total budget for the project is Euro700m.

Nigeria: State governor Muhammad Inuwa Yahaya opened the Gombe State Investment Summit in the northeastern state of Gombe on 12 October 2022. The summit aims to attract investors from within and outside of Nigeria. The state government hopes that local mineral reserves and the state's strategic location will appeal to investors from new industries to the state, including the gypsum wallboard industry.

The This Day newspaper has reported that Yahaya said “We have the largest deposits of gypsum in the country." He continued “Gombe is also blessed with huge commercial deposits of coal, oil, and gas."

China: BNBM’s operating income grew by 25% to US$3.33bn in 2021 from US$2.66bn in 2020. Its net profit rose by 23% to US$554m from US$451m. Its production and sales volumes of gypsum wallboard increased by 19% to 2.43Bnm² and 18% to 2.38Bnm² respectively. It reported a gypsum wallboard production capacity utilisation rate of 78%. The group added that data from the Gypsum Building Materials Branch of China Building Materials Federation showed that national wallboard production capacity was 4.90Bnm²/yr and that production and sales were 3.51Bnm² in 2021.

Parent company CNBM separately reported that the group raised its average wallboard selling prices by 7%. It said it put up its prices in the reporting period due to high prices of coal, gypsum, paper and other raw materials. Internationally, the group said that a new wallboard plant in Tanzania had started operation in 2021 and that a new plant in Uzbekistan is still being built.

South Africa: Waster water specialist Talbot is working with a coal producer in the Highveld region to remove gypsum generated as a by-product of its mine water purification process.

As part of a pilot project conducted in March 2020, a hydraulic filter press was used to dewater the solids, dry and press them into briquette form for transportation to end-use customers. The remaining filtrate was directed to an evaporation dam before returning to site processes via a blend line. Talbot says it reduced the waste solids from 84 - 2900mg/l and demonstrated that the technology would extract gypsum at a rate of 100kg/hr on a full-scale site operation. Previously the company has used this method on behalf of a South African platinum producer where the recovery of precious metals from a wastewater stream using the same technology.

Bosnia & Herzegovina: A three-month test run of hot flue gas desulphurisation at RiTE’s Ugljevik coal-fired power station in the Republika Srpska region began on 13 December 2019. The Euro80m installation will reduce sulphur dioxide (SO₂) emissions to 200ppm from 16,000ppm, in accordance with European Union standards, and produce an unspecified quantity of gypsum. Ugljevik manager Čedomir Stojanović said, “we are considering the construction of a second plant.”

India: Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHE) has been awarded the contract to supply emissions control systems, including a flue gas desulphurisation (FGD) system, at the Nabinagar Thermal Power Project. The project is a 4x250MW coal-fired power station being built by Bhartiya Rail Bijlee Company, a joint venture between NTPC and Indian Railways. BHE's scope of work includes design, engineering, civil works, supply, erection and commissioning of wet FGD system along with auxiliaries, including limestone and gypsum handling system and wet stack on a full engineering, procurement and construction basis.

Previously BHE installed a FGD system at Tata Power's Trombay Unit 8 in 2008. Including the latest order, BHE is presently executing FGD systems for 27 units of NTPC and its joint ventures.

India: NTPC says it plans to install flue-gas desulphurisation (FGD) units at all of its power stations. The state-owned power producer commissioned the country's first FGD unit at the 500MW unit number 13 (stage V) unit at its 4760MW Vindhyachal power plant in 2017 for a cost of around US$30m, according to the Press Trust of India. 1275t and 1515t of synthetic gypsum from the unit has been supplied to ACC and JP Cement respectively since the unit was started.

"With an aim to embrace sustainable practices to produce power with minimum emissions, NTPC is implementing this technology across its power plants. At present, the adoption of this technology is currently at various stages of implementation for 65.35GW of group capacity in 38 locations, which also includes upcoming projects," the state-owned power producer said.

Earlier in July 2019 GE Power India said it had has won three FGD projects from NTPC at the Simhadri Super Thermal Power Station, the Sipat Super Thermal Power Station and the Aravali Power Company plant, IGSTPP Jhajjar.

India: GE Power India has won three wet flue gas desulphurisation (FGD) projects. A contract worth US$335m covers the supply and installation of FGD systems at two NTPC coal power plants, the Simhadri Super Thermal Power Station and the Sipat Super Thermal Power Station, and one Aravali Power Company plant, IGSTPP Jhajjar.

GE’s scope includes design, engineering, civil work, supply, erection and commissioning of Wet FGD systems along with auxiliaries, including limestone and gypsum handling systems and wet stack on full turnkey basis. In addition, GE’s scope for IGSTPP Jhajjar also includes 10 years of operation and maintenance including the supply of spare parts.

With these three wet FGD projects together, GE will help NTPC to treat 35Mm³/hr of flue gas and will remove up to 0.11Mt/yr of SO₂, which will be converted into gypsum by-product for use in the construction industry.

India: GE Power India has been award a contract by Aravali Power worth US$107m for a flue gas desulphurisation (FGD) system. The contract is for design, engineering, civil work, supply, erection and commissioning of wet FGD systems along with auxiliaries like limestone and gypsum handling systems and wet stack on full turnkey basis.

Aravali Power is a joint venture company between NTPC, Haryana Power Generation Company and Indraprastha Power Generation Company. It operates a coal power station near Jharli, Jhajjar in Haryana with three 500MW units. An additional two 660MW units are planned for a future expansion project.