Limestone Sorbents Market for Flue Gas Desulphurisation in Coal-Fired Power Plants in the Context of the Transformation of the Power Industry—A Case of Poland

Jarosław Szlugaj and Krzysztof Galos
Additional contact information
Jarosław Szlugaj: Mineral and Energy Economy Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences, J. Wybickiego 7A, 31-261 Kraków, Poland
Krzysztof Galos: Mineral and Energy Economy Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences, J. Wybickiego 7A, 31-261 Kraków, Poland

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 14, 1-16

Abstract: Since the beginning of the 1990s, due to international regulations on air quality, a large number of flue gas desulphurisation (FGD) installations have been constructed in the Polish coal-fired power industry. Thanks to that, SO 2 capture in this industry increased to ca. 90%. Since wet lime or fluidized bed boilers were mostly used for FGD purposes, a significant increase in the domestic demand for lime sorbents has been reported. Between 1994 and 2019, it has increased from virtually zero before 1994 to about 3.3–3.4 million tpy (tonnes per year) today. On the basis of official governmental data and completed surveys of the Polish power companies, the paper analyses the process of the implementation of FGD in Poland along with limestone sorbents consumption and FGD gypsum production in the Polish coal-fired power plants. It also presents the current and potential limestone resource base for production of limestone sorbents applied in FGD. Electric energy mix in Poland is expected to be changed radically in the coming 30 years. Share of coal-based electricity is still very high—ca. 80%—and it will remain dominant for at least next decade. With the next coming FGD installations, further moderate increase of limestone sorbents consumption is expected, up to 3.7 million tpy in 2030. After 2030, a significant, quick decrease of share of coal-fired electricity is expected in Poland, down to max. 30% just before 2050. This will result in a gradual decrease in limestone sorbent demand, to max. 1.3 million tpy before 2050 and virtually zero after 2050, which will be followed by collapse of FGD gypsum production.

Keywords: limestone sorbents; flue gas desulphurisation; FGD gypsum; coal-fired power plants; energy transition; climate policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/14/4275/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/14/4275/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:14:p:4275-:d:594772

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().