Flue Gas Desulphurisation (FGD)

Why in news?

• The Ministry of Power (MoP) has extended the deadline for coal-fired power plants to install Flue Gas Desulphurisation (FGD) to cut sulphur emissions by two years (from 2025 to 2027).

What is Flue Gas Desulphurisation (FGD)?

• Flue-gas desulfurization (FGD) is a set of technologies used to remove sulfur dioxide (SO2) from exhaust flue gases of fossil-fuel power plants and from the emissions of other sulfur dioxide-emitting processes such as waste incineration.

Why is it important to install FGD plants in India?

• India continues to occupy the top spot among SO2 emitters. In 2019, India emitted 21% of global anthropogenic (human-made) SO2 emissions nearly double that of the second-ranked global emitter, Russia.
• Thermal utilities which produce 75% of the country’s power, account for some 80% of industrial emissions of sulphur and nitrous oxides, which cause lung diseases, acid rain and smog.
• The high levels of damaging SO2 pollution in India are avoidable much sooner as FGD systems have proved successful in reducing emission levels in China, the country responsible for the highest level in 2005.

Add ons:

• India had initially set a 2017 deadline for thermal power plants to install FGD units to cut Sulphur emissions.
• The deadline was later changed to varying deadlines for different regions, ending in 2022, and further extended last year to a period ending in 2025.
• Now, the power plants will be forcibly retired if they do not comply with norms on sulphur emissions by end-2027.

PRACTICE QUESTION:

Consider the following statements:

1. India is the largest anthropogenic sulfur dioxide emitter in the world

2. In India, coal-fired power plants need to mandatorily install Flue Gas Desulphurisation (FGD) to cut sulphur emissions

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 only

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Answer