Mar 14, 2012· Synthetic gypsum is created from a byproduct of fluegas desulfurization (FGD), a process coalfired power plants use to limit emissions. Although the chemical process that captures FGD gypsum is different from the physical collection of fly ash and bottom ash, which is more likely to pick up heavy metals as a matter of course, mercury and other heavy metals are showing up in synthetic gypsum .