Cooling your home. Though natural gas is typically used to heat your home, you can also find gas-powered air conditioning units. The machines are usually more expensive upfront, hindering many from switching to natural gas air conditioning.
Gypsum crystals in the Cave of the Crystals in Mexico. Note person for scale. Gypsum is a soft sulfate mineral composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate, with the chemical formula CaSO 4 Â·2H 2 O. It can be used as a fertilizer, is the main constituent in many forms of plaster and in blackboard chalk, and is widely mined.he word gypsum is derived from the Greek word Î³ÏÏÎ¿Ï (gypsos), chalk or plaster. Because the quarries of the Montmartre district of Paris have long furnished burnt gypsum (calcined gypsum) used for various purposes, this dehydrated gypsum became known as plaster of Paris.
Gypsum has many other uses, too. In fact, it is used as a filler ingredient in many foods. The average person eats about 28 pounds of gypsum in a lifetime. When gypsum rock is crushed and the water removed, it can be used to make plaster of paris, commonly used in industry.Ground gypsum is also used as a soil conditioner. Chemically, gypsum rock is calcium sulfate with two molecules of water.ational Gypsum also uses another form of calcium sulfate called byproduct gypsum. Byproduct gypsum is produced when power companies scrub their coal-fired emissions to remove sulfur dioxide. The resulting byproduct is calcium sulfate.