You often get a variety of answers when you ask people what they know about sulfurous emissions or their current impact on the environment. Put simply, greater effort is being made around the world to combat sulfurous air pollution, but the most common methods of flue-gas desulfurization aren’t necessarily the best option when it comes to protecting the planet or humanity – and they don’t make a lot of sense from a commercial perspective, either.
In the case of Wet Flue-Gas Desulfurization (“WetFGD”), which is meant to remove sulfurous emissions produced by industrial sites, the process consumes a tremendous amount of limestone and water, and produces large quantities of gypsum as a waste product. Only a portion of this sulfur-rich gypsum (more accurately referred to as “sulfur-contaminated gypsum”) can be utilized by nearby cement-production or road-construction operations; the majority ends up in a landfill, or accumulates in an open-air gypsum mountain. These storage methods can produce toxic runoff that poses a threat to both surface and underground water sources, and they also release significant quantities of sulfurous, potentially hazardous gypsum dust. It’s also worth noting that the chemical reaction that occurs when WetFGD limestone and sulfur dioxide (SO2) come into contact results in the release of airborne CO2. “Rerouting” air pollution into another form of pollution is a risky workaround, to say the least.