Global Insulation Conference & Exhibition 2013
23 - 24 September 2013, Aachen, Germany
Image gallery for the 8th Global Insulation Conference and Exhibition 2013
The 8th Global Insulation Conference and Exhibition took place in Aachen, Germany on 23 - 24 September and was the largest so far, with 155 delegates from 27 different countries and an exhibition of 16 industry suppliers. Here we give highlights of the event.
The Global Insulation Conference and Exhibition has been organised every year since its first incarnation in Brussels in 2006 and has since taken place in Berlin (2007), Barcelona (2008), Prague (2009), London (2010), Toronto (2011) and Riga (2012). This year the event took place in the bustling and historic German border town of Aachen and attracted 155 delegates from 27 different countries; Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Russia, Saudia Arabia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, UAE, UK, Ukraine and the USA, which was the most international field of industry experts yet assembled for the conference.
The Global Insulation Exhibition featured insulation equipment and service suppliers from around the world and included ACC, CNBM Technology, EFRA, Gamma Meccanica SpA, Grenzebach, Izoteh, Johns Manville, Kaibel & Sieber GmbH, Lachenmeier, Limab, Münstermann, Premier Tech Chronos, Qubiqa, Sensortech Systems Europe, STM - Technologies and Wacker Chemie AG. Coffee breaks at the event were sponsored by Wacker Chemie AG.
The event started off with an evening reception in the exhibition area on the day before the main conference, where old friends were greeted and new contacts met.
First day
The conference started with a session on trends and developments in the global insulation industry, before looking at organic and then inorganic insulation advances.
Jan-Paul Schop, MD of USP Marketing Consulting, started off the conference with a presentation on the construction market outlook in Europe. Jan-Paul stated that Germany had hardly experienced the recession, in terms of architects' order books, but that Spain and Italy had both been 'pummelled.' Italy is expected to continue to stagnate into 2015. Jan-Paul mentioned that stricter fire regulations are being established throughout Europe. The UK and Germany are said to be sceptical about regulations regarding the energy performance of existing buildings, although other countries already see the regulations taking effect. Architects are finding that a greater proportion of clients are not only asking for sustainable construction materials and methods, but also that they are prepared to pay a premium to achieve sustainability. Having said that, sustainable building certification is becoming obligatory in many more countries around Europe. Jan-Paul stated that prefabrication is becoming more popular, with the building site becoming more of an assembly site. Insulation materials are becoming thinner, smarter and more sophisticated, with innovative insulation materials featuring improved performance being seen on the market. Insulation panels are seen as 'the future' by architects. According to the architects polled by USP Marketing, PUR/PIR is expected to be used more extensively in the next five years, while both glass wool and polystyrene are expected to lose ground. Stone wool's market share is expected to remain stable, in the opinion of the architects. Detailed technical information, engineering advice, sustainability and calculation tools were the most popular factors (in that order) that caused architects to choose a particular brand. However, many architects said they had no preferred brand of insulation.
Diana Fisler of Johns Manville next spoke about fire retardants in building materials. As stated by Hammurabi, Babylonian King of 1700BC, "If a builder builds a house for someone and does not construct it properly and the house which he builds falls in and kills its owner, then that builder shall be put to death." Diana suggested that if that law still reigned, then builders would be more careful about how they built houses and what they built them with. Diana went on to speak about fire testing, pointing out that modern fire tests don't capture the full complexities of a real fire. Fire retardants work in a number of ways. Halogenated fire retardants trap radicals during the flammable gas production phase of a fire. Char-formers physically insulate fuel sources with a fire-resisting 'char' layer, typically an organo-phosphorus component. They may also foam a little through intumescence, insulating the material from heat. A third type dilutes the oxidising gas by emitting water, nitrogen or another inert gas. A combination of types may be used in the same material.
Usually, these fire retardant chemicals are added to the materials and have only a fire retardant effect and no other beneficial effects: they represent an additional non-optional cost. The toxicity of fire retardant chemicals has been exhaustively investigated. Mineral wool, fibreglass, silica aerogels, calcium silicate, perlite and cellular or foamed glass are incombustible, apart from minor additives or facings: they don't need fire retardants. Organic fibrous insulation (including wood fibre boards, cellulose and natural fibres such as wool) are combustible and do need retardants. Most use boric acid and sodium borate as retardants, but boric acid has now been investigated for toxicity.
Polystyrene needs retardants and hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD) is the retardant of choice, but the chemical is being progressively banned in the EU. Brominated long-chain fire retardant chemicals are likely to be used instead. Polyisocyanurate foams are more resistant to high temperatures and use chlorinated TCPP as a halogenated fire retardant and as a char-former. Polyurethane sprayed foams use reactive brominated fire retardants rather than additive retardants. Halogenated fire retardants are coming under increased scrutiny worldwide, with the EPA assessing 23 commonly used chemicals. Some groups have proposed loosening the fire codes in the US because insulation is not directly exposed to flame, but others are vehemently opposed to this approach. Diana pointed out that Johns Manville has been conducting research on new fire retardants, mostly aimed at polyurethane foams, improving the thermal stability of the polyol segment, to make it more fire-resistant and char forming and also exploring various phosphorus-based chemistry solutions. Other active research is looking at ammonium polyphosphate, expandable graphite, amorphous sodium polyborate, melamine compounds, organo-clays and nanoclays and a variety of phosphorus-based compounds. Diana concluded that it is important to compare the hazards and the risks of the use of insulation, including the true exposure/risk of fire retardant chemicals.
František Vörös of the Czech EPS association spoke about the history and future of EPS. The first commercially produced styrene and polystyrene was produced by IG Farben in 1931, with the first XPS produced by Dow in the USA in 1941. By 1960, world production had reached only 35kt/yr, but now production has topped 6Mt/yr and over 100 producers have a capacity of over 10kt/yr. František stated that a number of studies suggest that EPS will grow at between 4.1% to 7.7% per year to 2020 and said that production will top 15Mt/year by 2050. He pointed out that energy intensity of industry and homes is generally decreasing, partly due to the ever-increasing cost of energy and partly due to increasingly stringent building regulations. China aims to cut its energy intensity by 40 - 45% by 2020 compared to 2005. Intensity levels are even being considered in energy-rich America: As President Obama has said, "Insulation is sexy." František forecast that the use of shale gas as a cheap feedstock can be expected and that sustainability will become more important for the insulation industry, as part of the 'Third Industrial Revolution.' Lower energy consumption during manufacture, a trend from suspension polymerisation to extrusion production and thence to production from the GPPS melt will allow energy and water savings. New technologies all also allow enhanced product properties: novel blowing agents, smaller cells, novel additives and combinations with other insulation materials including aerogels may also be in the future of EPS. He forecast a drop in the number of EPS raw material producers due to globalisation and rationalisation, with fewer but larger manufacturers.
Edmar Meuwissen of EUMEPS introduced the next presentation, on the fire safety of EPS external thermal insulation composite systems (ETICS). Germany is a strong market for ETICS and a total of around 150Mm2 of ETICS is installed each year around Europe, of which 85% is constructed with EPS. EPS has a number of product benefits, including tight dimensional tolerances, long-term stability, lightness, easy of application, flexibility and moisture resistance, cost effectiveness and proven durability, with 50 years of experience of the product in place. He pointed out that there has been an intensive R&D programme over the years to manage the fire risk of ETICS. Co-author Esko Mikkola of KK-Fireconsult Ltd spoke further on the subject. A typical fire hazard for an ETICS system would be where a fire breaks out of a window from an internal room, which may take place in 1 - 4% of fires. He pointed out that fire-stops should be used above each window and/or along the length of each second floor. EPS insulation should be protected by a 5-8mm thickness of rendering that is not ignitable. Only with a high heat flux will an EPS ETICS system start to combust: experimental work has shown that the burnt area is limited to the lower edge of the window two floors above. A window is expected to break once the temperature has passed 500°C, or when the heat flux level is above 35kW/m2. EPS can be ignited when the exposure level is 30kW/m2 for about 15 minutes or 40kW/m2 for about four minutes. Esko pointed out that the probability of a fatal fire in a multi-story building fire is around 10 - 6, "a level that society seems to accept." He suggested that the minimum distance between buildings using EPS ETICS should be 5 - 8m. For small heat sources, it is useful for the EPS to have an included fire-retardant, but with high heat flux sources, the differences in ignitability are negligible. Construction sites must take great care during installation and if people are in the building while EPS is being installed, then the time that the EPS is uncovered should be minimised. Finally, Esko Mikkola concluded that structural detailing of the façade system is essential in decreasing fire hazards.
Kasturirangan Kannah, also known as 'K,' next spoke about sustainable flame retardants for polystyrene insulation foams, on behalf of Chemtura Manufacturing UK Ltd., part of Great Lakes Solutions. Fire testing is now being standardised across Europe, but it is a slow process. As mentioned by Diana Fisler, fire retardants can work through inhibition of the production of flammable gases during the pyrolysis process. K pointed out that the EU chemicals regulations, REACH, require fire retardants to be assessed individually rather than by family. Hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD) has been the fire retardant of choice for many years, but has fallen out of favour after having been clasified as a persistent organic pollutant (POP) and is set for global elimination, with a time-limited exemption for use in polystyrene foam for buildings. By the end of decade, it will be banned worldwide. "What will come in its place?" asked Kasturirangan Kannah. The replacement should not be persistent, bio-accumulative or toxic, it needs to supply fire retardancy and it needs to be manufacturing-process friendly. K said that "use of reactive or polymeric flame retardants" is the way forward. Large polymer molecules are too large to be transported across biological cell membranes and are therefore minimally toxic. Although these large polymer molecules would be persistent by design, they would not be prone to bio-accumulation, due to their high molecular weight. Chemtura's HBCD replacement, Emerald Innovation 3000, has comparable flame retardancy to the now-banned compound and requires minimal modifications to current formulations and production processes.
Stephen Long of Plastics Europe and Ineos Styrenics next gave the 'global premiere' of a multi-criteria evaluation - including sustainability - of insulation materials. Germany and Italy were used as different climate zones and over 300 different insulation products were analysed by the Büro für Umweltchemie in Zurich. The materials were compared based on the same insulation performance (U-value), including all the fixing materials and data was derived from the Environment Product Declarations, but Stephen Long admitted that a more harmonised approach will be required in future studies. The current study was obliged to use hazard as a proxy for risk, but the authors stated that a truer measure of exposure risk is needed - and is not currently available. The criteria measured were embodied energy, climate friendliness, summer smog generation potential, acid rain generation potential, recovery potential, health risks, application suitability and investment cost. The study concluded that all insulation materials have an overall positive impact on the sustainability of the building; there is no one material that is best in all applications. Results depend significantly on the application and construction method. The climate region has only minor effects on the results. The performance of natural-based materials is not necessarily better than plastics or minerals. PUR/PIR (polyurethane/polyisocyanurate) was scored as 'always best in terms of thickness per functional unit.' Mineral fibres are favourable with regards to their reaction to fire without flame retardants and due to their negligible thermal expansion. EPS was suggested to have the lowest investment cost of the insulation types tested. Stephen Long concluded that 'Proper construction is a basic prerequisite for long-term use without damage, with appropriate fixing of the insulation, effective protection from the influence of weather, sufficient tensile strength for related loads and measures to avoid condensed water and thermal bridges.'
Michel Cassart of Total Petrochemicals next spoke about Excell-R, 'a versatile insulation with high thermal performance.' The company supplies raw materials to XPS producers, as well as enhanced EPS. Michel pointed out that EPS is recyclable and can also be 'valorised' through incineration. He suggested that one litre of oil used to produce the insulation will save 200 litres of oil over its lifetime.
Grazyna Mitchener of PolyChemTech Ltd next asked 'Can space technology insulate our houses?' and wondered where the innovation race will eventually take insulation. Grazyna pointed out that we started out on the 'insulation journey' using sheep wool and have arrived at sophisticated materials like PIR and PUR. PIR is lightweight, 26 - 30kg/m3, with lambda values of 20-21mW/m/K. However, Grazyna stated that her preferred material is now aerogel, composed of 95% air and 5% silica, which is fully recyclable and has a lambda value of 4wW/m/K. Aerogel is now commercially available in blanket form. Polymeric nano-foams, using a wide variety of additives have been manufactured with very low lamda values. Grazyna told delegates that windows have now been made with a translucent aerogel filling and that aerogel manufactured in zero-gravity is more transparent than the traditional Earth-bound variety. On the other hand, solar panels have now been made that are transparent, offering the possibility of making windows into solar panels. There is even the suggestion that solar cells could be 'sprayed-on.' Grazyna's conservatory is set up to email her when it becomes too hot, but photo-chromatic coatings can be used to reduce glare and heat transmission either manually or automatically. Self-regulating insulation is perhaps not too far away in the future.
Gala Dinner and Global Insulation Awards
In the evening of the first full day of the conference, the delegates boarded buses to make the short trip over the border into the Netherlands to visit the Cavern de Geulhem for the conference Gala Dinner. While at the dinner, the Global Insulation Awards were presented, after a global online two-stage nomination and voting process. The Global Insulation 'Company of the year' award went to Rockwool International, while technology/equipment 'Supplier of the year' went to Grenzebach for its stone wool production lines. The Fujairah Rockwool Factory won the award for 'Plant of the year,' while Saint-Gobain Isover took home an award for technical innovation, for its Lambda 029 mineral wool product. The Global Insulation 'Product of the year' was Dow Corning's Vacuum Insulation Panel. In a category awarded by a judging panel, Stephen Long was named the Global Insulation 'Personality of the year' for his unstinting efforts to grow the total size of the 'insulation pie' for all manufacturers. On returning to the conference hotel, warm discussions carried on late into the night.
Second day
On the second day of the conference, concentrating on inorganic wools, Michael Schumm of Saint-Gobain Isover spoke about a new world record performance for mineral wool. Saint-Gobain was founded in 1665 by Louis XIV, to make the glass for the hall of mirrors at Versailles. The company is now the world's largest producer of insulation and, it is claimed, of plasterboard and plaster. The company has been making insulation since 1835 and now produces mineral wool, rigid foams and systems for air-tightness and moisture-proofing. Michael pointed out that the thermal conductivity of mineral wool changes as it becomes densified: solid conductivity increases while heat radiation decreases, even while the encapsulated air conductivity does not change. By removing the air, to create a vacuum insulation panel, the conductivity can be reduced to perhaps only 4mW/m/K. However, the vacuum in the panel has to be maintained for the entire lifetime of the panel. A VIP without a core - such as Isover's VacuPad - has a higher lambda, from 5-80mW/m/K. Fibre diameters and orientations can be modified, the binder can be optimised, opacifiers can be used to decrease radiation losses and the glass composition can be changed, but possible changes to composition are limited due to biosolubility issues. Michael, a glass fibre health expert, mentioned the safety of existing glass wool fibres, pronouncing them well and truly 'safe.' Isover presented its 030 'Königsklass' glass wool, corresponding to a laboratory performance of 029 lambda.
Roland Fischer and Florian Höft of Bernd Münstermann GmbH spoke about the development of a new mineral wool basic forming section for emerging markets. Roland stated that Münstermann had saturated its markets in Europe for fully-equipped premium forming sections. Florian went on to say that the company tried to sell these products into new customers in Russia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and India, but customers always said that the offering was too expensive. A downgraded forming section was then offered, but the reaction was that it was still too expensive. Research showed that only basic functions and less automation were required and that the price was important but that reliability and low maintenance were a 'must.' Only elementary functions were required, with a modular design, lower level of automation, easy maintenance and a container-sized design for worldwide delivery. A sale to Rotaflex in the Czech Republic has shown that the concept works. Experience from producing this basic forming section has been brought back into the design for the established premium products as well.
Lionel Guiziou of Satimo next spoke about the detection of wet spots in mineral wool using microwave scanner technology. The 'Dentro' scanner uses a 9.4GHz signal with low emissions (lower than a mobile phone). When a wet spot occurs, the system measures the deviation in the phase shift: new algorithms have been developed to quantify the moisture content of the wet spots. Solid defects are not considered as 'contaminating' from a quality control point of view. Algorithms were used to differentiate wet spots and hard objects and filtering was then used to highlight only the wet spots. The technology has been used on low density products, up to 5kg/m2.
Theodore Lee of CNBM was the final presenter at the conference and spoke about energy saving and environmentally-friendly mineral wool production in China, after giving an overview of the Chinese insulation market. China National Building Materials, CNBM, is a state-owned company and was established in 1984. Annual sales of CNBM amounted to US$30.15bn in 2012, with less than 10% of sales coming from exports. The company is listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange, is listed at 365 on the Fortune 500 largest companies in the world and is 65th largest in China. Cement accounts for 50% of turnover, while the company produces mineral wool, glass fibre, plasterboard and glass mats. The EPS market in China has been hit hard by new government regulations, while rock wool is taking market share. CNBM's mineral wool production capacity is 100,000t/yr, small in Chinese terms. Total mineral wool production capacity in 2012 in China was 4Mt, with more than 300 mineral wool production lines. 70% of lines are of 3000t/yr or smaller, each of which might have an investment cost of only US$5m. The market is undergoing rapid change, with many new plants under contract in just the last two years: new lines tend to be larger capacity, with 1.7Mt/yr of capacity in plants of above 20kt/yr. Capacity is concentrated in Hebei, Beijing, Tianjin, Jiangsu and Shanghai. Total mineral wool sales in 2012 were 1.8Mt, far below production capacity. In 2013, another 1Mt/yr of new capacity will come on stream. New standards of mineral wool manufacture force energy consumption to below 1.32x107kJ/t. Gas prices have increased by more than 10% since 2012, while electricity prices are also expected to increase significantly in 2013. Heavy pollution has forced the government to close many smaller mineral wool plants in China. At the same time, more production capacity and price competition - meaning lower margins - has forced producers towards production innovations. Mr Lee spoke about a new design for a combined iron manufacturing cupola and mineral wool furnace. The sealed melting furnace produces coal gas at 1m3 per 1m3 of combustion air. 40% of the coal gas is used to replace natural gas in the furnace, 10% for the curing station and 50% to generate electricity for the production line. The melting capacity of the plant is 350t/hr, with output of 150t of rock wool and 150t of steel. Based on its rock wool capacity, the total energy efficiency of the line is 0.88x107kJ/t, a 33% reduction below the new energy consumption standard for rock wool in China.
Conference awards
At the end of the conference, delegates voted on their favourite presentations. 'Honourable mentions' went to Theodore Lee, Diana Fisler and to Grazyna Mitchener. Roland Fischer and Florian Höft of Münstermann were placed third for their paper on 'reverse innovation.' Kasturirangan Kannah of Chemtura Manufacturing was second placed for his paper on sustainable flame retardants, while Michael Schumm of Saint-Gobain Isover was awarded the 'best presentation award' for his paper on Lambda 029 mineral wool.
Delegates also gave the conference high marks on the conference questionnaire, with the event being the best-rated ever for networking opportunities and was rated the best Global Insulation Conference ever overall.
Delegates commented:
- "I plan to attend next year, for the great networking;"
- "There was a diverse, open atmosphere, in a 'business environment,' with a focus on ideas and information; Thanks for the opportunity to attend;"
- "Very dynamic, a lot of interesting people;"
- "Very good and fruitful atmosphere;"
- "Fantastic event: Definitely keen to come again next year."
Global Insulation Conference 2014
There was much discussion at the conference as to where the next Global Insulation Conference should take place, with delegates having to weigh up the travel distances, the existence of local manufacturers and customers, ease of travel, cost of attendance and other factors. Two separate shows of hands at the conference did not give a clear preference, so a global survey was undertaken, using Global Insulation's 5000-strong database of insulation industry contacts. Finally a clear picture came back and in consequence, we are pleased to announce that the Global Insulation Conference 2014 will take place on 30 - 31 October 2014, in Copenhagen, Denmark.
We look forward to meeting you in wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen: Skål!
