It is compulsory to install flue-gas desulphurization systems and exhaust gas filters when constructing or modernizing steel works.

Limestone products were to include construction aggregate for concrete and asphalt, as well as limestone-based products for cement and flue-gas desulphurization(FGD) for the oil sands extraction process.

The present target is a 60 per cent cut on 1980 levels by 2003 - to be achieved in large part by limiting S02 emissions from power stations, either through fitting flue-gas desulphurization (FGD) equipment or burning low-sulphur coal.

Based on 400 monitoring sites, sulphur dioxide levels decreased 24 per cent during the 1980-9 period as a consequence of increased installation of flue-gas desulphurization equipment at coal-fired power stations, a reduction in the average sulphur content of fuels, industrial recession, and shutdowns of some large smelters (figure 8.8).

The IGCC plant achieved an energy efficiency of 45-50 per cent, compared to 37 per cent for a conventional coal-fired station with flue-gas desulphurization equipment; and it produced 10 per cent less carbon dioxide, only a seventh of the sulphur dioxide, a third of the nitrogen oxides, and no methane.