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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, SO₂ 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. Full article

Limestone flour is used in a variety of industrial sectors such as power and heat generation, glass-making, paper-making, the construction industry and construction materials manufacturing, the production of agriculture, plastics and rubber goods, as well as coal mining, and environmental protection. This paper aims to characterize and interpret the limestone flour supply and demand trends in the main applications in Poland in the last decade. In order to track the changes of domestic consumption for this commodity, its major users have been surveyed along with analyses of data from the Statistics Poland (GUS). The results showed that during 2009–2018 the coal-fired power plants became the biggest customer of limestone flour utilized as a sorbent in the wet flue gas desulfurization method (FGD). This method has been implemented in the vast majority of Polish power plants. It is estimated that in the last decade the total annual production capacity of limestone flour at the milling plants in Poland increased by 1.5 million tons, to around 6.0 million tons. In the forthcoming years, this is expected to continue to increase despite EU restrictions on fossil fuel use (especially hard coal and lignite). Other promising areas of future growth are: for limestone flour of medium quality—the construction materials manufacturing and the construction industry itself, for limestone flour of the highest quality—the glass industry, while for fine-grained limestone flour of high-quality—the plastics and rubber industries. In terms of resource security, it is worth noting that Poland is a country rich in limestone deposits. However, only some of them, that is, limestone rock varieties of the Jurassic and Devonian ages from the Kielce vicinity in central Poland are suitable for the production of high-quality limestone flour for the needs of the mentioned industries. The paper analyses the potential of the limestone flour production from the available limestone rock deposits with respect to the current and future needs of the domestic market in Poland. Full article