The Gypsum Files

Plaster grown in the lab

10 April 2012, by Adele Rackley

New research could be the first step towards a much cheaper and more efficient way to make plaster.

Scientists have reproduced the early stages of gypsum crystals in their laboratory, a process which could lead to a cheap way to manufacture the plaster of Paris that’s used by builders, artists and medical practitioners.

Chances are it’s on the walls and ceiling of the room you’re in now – 100 million tons of plaster of Paris, are manufactured every year from the naturally occurring mineral gypsum. As well as in the building industry, it’s widely used by artists and in medicine.

Plaster is made by first quarrying the gypsum, then driving out its water content to leave a powder made up of mineral called bassanite. It’s an energy-hungry process with a large carbon footprint.

But now researchers have documented the first steps that could lead to turning this process around.

Scientists from the University of Leeds and the CSIC-University of Granada in Spain, experimented with supersaturated gypsum solutions to try to figure out how gypsum crystals form – something that is not well understood. To their surprise they found that the first phase to form in the solution were bassanite nanoparticles – but under those chemical conditions bassanite should not have formed at all.

By taking a series of high resolution images they watched these tiny particles growing into rods and joining up into strings that eventually transform into gypsum crystals.

And this all happened at room temperature, so in principle this could become a low-energy way of producing the raw material for plaster of Paris.

via Plaster could be grown lab. | Chem.Info.

Related articles

• How to plaster the world, cheaply! (naturenplanet.com)

‘A few people had looked at the possibility of using red mud for carbon capture in the past, but it was a real surprise that adding gypsum turned out to have this effect,’ says Dr Phil Renforth, a geochemist at the University of Oxford and the paper’s lead author. ‘Looking at the geochemistry of the deposits it left behind showed a direct relationship between how much gypsum was added and how much carbon was captured.’

via Hungarian mud remedy also captured carbon.

In support of the study, primary life cycle inventory (LCI) data were collected for three major gate-to-gate processes in the production of gypsum wallboard (natural or crude gypsum ore extraction, gypsum paper manufacture, and gypsum wallboard production) for the reference year 2010. The manufacturing plant study sample included all Gypsum Association member companies and represented about 30% of all gypsum wallboard produced in the USA. To ensure representativeness, the manufacturing plant study also considered the scale of operations including a mix of small, medium and large facilities, their geographical location in each US census region and their source of gypsum (adjacent quarry, mine, or imported gypsum ore) as well as their use of flue gas desulphurization (FGD) gypsum.

Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/business/press-releases/article/Gypsum-Association-Commissions-Athena-Institute-3335326.php#ixzz1maHsKygW

Ninety-seven homeowners in four states have joined lawsuits against U.S. drywall manufacturers in the past year, claiming that their drywall is releasing enough sulfur gas to corrode wiring and appliances and cause headaches, nosebleeds, labored breathing and irritated eyes—complaints that until now have been mostly associated with Chinese drywall. Many families have abandoned their homes, fearing long-term health problems. Some are facing foreclosure, or even bankruptcy.

via American-Made Drywall Emerges as Potential Danger – ProPublica.

According to a report in Hanley-Wood’s ProSales Online, USG’s Nov. 3 announcement of a price increase was followed by similar announcements by CertainTeed Corp. in Valley Forge, National Gypsum Co., Lafarge, and Temple-Inland Inc.

USG, which reported $297 million in profit in the boom year of 2006, sustained huge losses in 2010′s first three quarters – including $100 million in the third quarter, reflecting “continued weak market conditions and extraordinarily low shipping volumes,” said chairman and chief executive officer William C. Foote.

In 2009, production of drywall industrywide was almost half that of 2006.

via Hike in drywall costs expected to hammer builders | Philadelphia Inquirer | 11/15/2010.

Photo by Mike Fitzpatrick

Today I discovered a wonderful slide show of the US Gypsum mine and board plant in Shoals, Indiana. The photos date from 1978 — check out that Farrah Fawcett poster in the mine lounge! If you look at the photos individually, there are notes explaining the context.

I was still attending Shoals High School in 1978. Every year USG graciously hosted the local eighth grade class for a tour of the board plant, introducing them to the town’s largest industry.

Gyp Hills Scenic Drive and Gypsum Hills Scenic Byway earned a place among the 8 Wonders because of the beauty of the red-colored butte-and-mesa topography. The rocks were deposited in the Permian Period about 250 million years ago when a large shallow bay covered much of the area. When the bay was cut off from the ocean and the water evaporated, the rocks left behind were salt and gypsum. Much of the 22-mile route on the byway is open range cattle country. See the Gyp Hills three miles west of Medicine Lodge on U. S. 160. Travel the byway on U.S.160 from Medicine Lodge to Coldwater.

via Land thrills.

More lovely gypsum. Click on the link for more photos.

The Red Hills of southern Kansas are made of Permian aged redbeds and are so riddled with gypsum veins, they’re also known as the Gypsum Hills. Near Medicine Lodge, Kansas this rock is even mined for gypsum to make wallboard. Today’s deskcrop is one of the gypsum vein fragments that made it back to my office. You can still see the very red soil, which I haven’t entirely washed off.

via Day #42 Deskcrop: Gypsum Veins » Ron Schott’s Geology Home Companion Blog.