How much CO2 does making plaster of Paris emit per tonne?

Heating gypsum drives off water to make plaster of Paris; that releases no process CO2, unlike limestone. The CO2 comes from the fuel that heats the calciner and from grinding electricity. Divide both by tonnes of plaster produced.

Records

• Calciner fuel: coal, pet coke, biomass or gas, at IPCC defaults.
• Grinding and bagging electricity.
• Tonnes produced.

Phosphogypsum

Some plants use gypsum from fertiliser plants. Treat it as a by product with its own allocation, and say so.

What Senseible does here

Senseible reads the plant's electricity bills (CEA grid factor 0.710 kg CO2 per kWh, CO2 Baseline Database version 21.0) and fuel invoices (IPCC 2006 defaults) into a fingerprinted Scope 1 and 2 record, the plant-level input to a per-unit figure. Bought-in materials go to the supplier evidence trail; product reports are self-declared drafts.

• Gypsum board footprint
• Limestone calcination CO2

Sources: IPCC 2006 Guidelines, CEA CO2 Baseline Database

Last reviewed 2026-10-22.