NEWS RELEASE                                                                                                                OCTOBER 2013

World FGD Market Will Dip This Year but Increase 40 Percent By 2015

Due to substantial Chinese investment plus a bubble in U.S. spending, the flue gas desufurization (FGD) market will increase 49 percent between 2013 and 2015. FGD investment in 2015 will be just under $4.3 billion. This is the latest forecast in FGD Markets and Strategies published by the McIlvaine Company.

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In the last five years, the two markets accounting for most of the FGD investment have been the U.S. and China.  The Chinese market remains strong, but is below its peak year.  The U.S. market is much smaller now than in 2010.  It will rebound somewhat over the next two years. This is due to the new air toxic laws.

The new toxic pollutant regulations in the U.S. require removal of HCl.   Scrubbers which remove HCl also remove SO₂.  As a result, EPA says the corollary reduction of the SO₂ will be one of the biggest health benefits of the new regulations.

The larger and newer power plants in the U.S. already have scrubbers. So the new regulation primarily involves the older and smaller power plants. Many of these power plants are planning on taking a route with high operating costs and low capital costs.  The reason is that remaining life of these power plants is in question. The preferred option is to avoid the capital cost of a scrubber by injecting lime or sodium into the duct prior to the precipitator. This is called dry sorbent injection (DSI).

There are two problems with this approach.  The annual sorbent cost can be prohibitive. The efficiency may not be high enough to meet the requirements when high chlorine fuels are burned.

Since necessity is the motherhood of invention, there have been some new developments to make this approach more cost effective. New high efficiency lime sorbents have been developed. So, in most cases, dry injection followed by a precipitator will provide the required efficiency.

Another approach is the recovery and reuse of sodium sorbents in a process where calcium sulfate is the waste product.  This appears to offer both the high efficiency needed and the low annual sorbent cost.

For more information on FGD Markets and Strategies, click on: http://home.mcilvainecompany.com/index.php/markets/2-uncategorised/107-n027