Global Insulation Conference & Exhibition 2015
29 - 30 September 2015, Istanbul, Turkey
Image gallery for the 10th Global Insulation Conference and Exhibition 2015
The 10th Global Insulation Conference has successfully taken place, in Istanbul in September 2015, with 160 delegates from 30 countries in attendance, as well as an exhibition of 26 technology and service suppliers. The 11th Global Insulation Conference will take place in Hamburg in September 2016.
A welcome party firstly took place in the Global Insulation Exhibition area, where 26 exhibitors from around the world offered their equipment and services to the many customers in attendance.
The following day, Orhan Turan of ODE Yalitim Sanayi gave the first presentation at the 10th Global Insulation Conference, firstly looking at the Turkish macroeconomic scene: Turkish GDP has tripled since 2003 and the country has a CAGR of around 5%. Half of the Turkish population is under 30 years old and, in an optimistic light, the growth prospects for the country are outstanding. Turkey is an export-focused economy, with US$137bn of exports in 2014. Within a four hour flight, there are 1.5bn people and countries with US$28tn in GDP: Turkey is well-placed for trade and this has also encouraged foreign direct investment, with 41,000 foreign companies represented in the country. The construction sector represents around 6% of Turkish GDP, with the number of construction permits tripling between 2002 and 2014 and over one million housing units sold in 2014. The construction industry exports around US$20bn of goods each year, although this is skewed by strong cement exports. As a result of urban transformation and earthquake strengthening measures, 6.5 million buildings are expected to be redeveloped over the next decade. The Turkish insulation sector has grown from US$0.3bn to US$5bn from 2002 to 2014, while growth rates for insulation consumption in recent years have been in double figures, ranging up to 14%: Insulation growth typically rises at two to three times GDP growth. The market is dominated by EPS and XPS, followed by glass wool, stone wool and polyurethane products. Since Turkey imports 75% of its energy needs, costing US$55bn in 2014, insulation is critically required. Orhan Turan showed that the installation of insulation in Turkey will save tens of billions of dollars - with or without government support - leading up to the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Turkish Republic in 2023.
The second presentation at the conference was given by Robert McCaffrey of Global Insulation, and was a SWOT analysis (‘strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and strengths’) of the global insulation industry, as suggested by participants at the previous Global Insulation Conference in 2014 in Copenhagen. Critical issues for the industry are energy costs (higher is good for insulation demand but bad for manufacturing and feedstock costs - and vice versa); potential reputational damage from a variety of sources; a lack of understanding of insulation by potential customers; population growth, urbanisation and ‘comfort inflation,’ where people expect greater levels of comfort while indoors, in terms of temperature moderation and indoor air quality.
Vadim Novikov of TechnoNicol next gave a presentation on the current trends and future prospects for the construction and insulation sectors in Russia and the CIS countries. He suggested that the decline in investment in building and construction will amount to around 5% through 2015, partly due to the current sanctions regime. Stone wool and glass wool both have around a third of the market share, with polymers taking another third. PIR and PUR are expected to increase their share, alongside XPS, while stone wool and EPS are expected to lose market share. After a dip through to 2016, the markets are expected to grow again from 2017. Low crude oil prices have led to lower government revenues, which has led to a lower GDP and lower government investment and expenditure. At the same time, high inflation rate has led to higher prices and lower purchasing power. Potential for growth will come from energy efficiency programmes, renovation programmes, big projects - including the World Cup in 2018, additional attention to fire safety regulations and requirements and also through import substitution. Special investment programmes have also been proposed for the Far East and for the Lake Baikal regions. Vadim suggested that the market for stone wool in Ukraine will increase from 2017, largely due to reconstruction in the current war zone and a requirement to comply with European norms for construction. The Kazakhstan market for stone wool, on the other hand, has been continuously growing and this will continue for the foreseeable future: Astana will hold the World Expo in 2017 and this has and will drive construction growth. Belorussian demand for stone wool has stagnated through 2014-2015, but is set to pick up again - but economic development is dependent on economic progress in Russia. Vadim suggested that the insulation import market into Russia is now effectively ‘dead’ due to the depreciation of value of the Russian Ruble. On the other hand, this means that insulation exports have increased for the same reasons, since buying Russian insulation for foreigners is cheaper that it was before the depreciation. TechnoNicol accounts for around 75% of Russian insulation exports. Vadim pointed out that the overall stone wool production capacity in Russia amounts to 1.5Mt, but that demand amounts to only around 1.2Mt.
Volkan Ongel of Elit-Plast Ltd next spoke on insulation market trends in Ukraine and the CIS counties. He started his business importing stone wool into Ukraine and the CIS countries from Turkey, but finally built a brand-new factory in central Ukraine to manufacture insulation locally. The market shares for stone wool, glass wool and EPS were in agreement with those given by Vadim Novikov, at around a third each. DIY hypermarkets have recently been set up in Ukraine (requiring customers to provide their own transportation for purchases), and this is increasingly the main channel of sales in the country. Although the market for insulation in Crimea is now effectively closed to the rest of the country, the situation in the east of the country is more fluid and some sales may still be possible. Certainly a great deal of reconstruction will be required, as shown by photographs of the new-in-2012 Donetsk airport and its utter ruins of today. Ukraine’s fast-growing population and GDP growth potential suggest a longer-term bright outlook for the insulation industry, even if there are strong headwinds at the moment.
Roland Caps of the Vacuum Insulation Panel Association, VIPA, spoke about the current status of VIPs and on future trends. VIPs - formerly a laboratory novelty but now in the mainstream - have extremely low thermal conductivity. Micro-porous powders such as fumed silica or perlite are usually used for the core, supplied as boards, while glass fibres can also be used if they have been compressed: PU foams can also be used. The ideal core material should have low cost per mass, low density, small pores, low thermal conductivity and long service lifetime. The thermal performance of a VIP drops dramatically if it is punctured and air is allowed in, although fumed silica cores retain their insulating properties best. The Knudsen Effect means that the mean free path of air molecules is limited in micro-porous materials, decreasing conduction to nearly zero. To take advantage of the effect, organic nano-foams are being developed for polystyrene- and polyurethane-base VIPs, using a sol-gel process, reducing their conductivity (even in air) to low levels and also increasing service life. A new product from BASF called Slentite is an open porous polyurethane aerogel rigid board that may boost VIP performance even further: a production plant at Lemförde, Germany, has been completed and commercial products are now eagerly awaited. In a VIP, the gas envelope must be gas-impermeable, should have low thermal conductivity and sufficient puncture resistance to allow long service life. Aluminium-based films are common, although stainless-steel films have also been used. All films are both air and moisture permeable over their lifetime of decades. Barrier films are a major cost factor in the overall cost of a VIP. VIPs are used in building insulation, particularly in interiors where space is at a premium; in appliances particularly fridges and freezers; and in thermal-based transport (particularly in combination with phase change materials). Roland said that the development of reliable methods to measure the aging process of VIPs in the building sector is of the utmost importance for the industry and International standards are set to be agreed in the next couple of years. Roland presented test results where VIPs were stored at 50°C and 70% relative humidity for six months, and were tested every two months. Results may be extrapolated to indicate performance after 25 years at the standard climate of 23°C and 50% relative humidity. The total market size for VIPs is around US$400m per year, increasing at a rate of around 17% per year over the next few years.
Martin Wiesweg of IHS Chemical next spoke on the outlook for feedstock, EPS and XPS markets. Industry consultants IHS have created a sophisticated supply, demand and economic model to forecast future price moves in these commodities. Critical factors in the models are the sharp slowdown in demand from China and the drop in cost of oil, partly due to oversupply. World polystyrene demand is 65% of global production capacity, meaning that it is easy and relatively inexpensive to find this feedstock for XPS on the markets. EPS shows the same market dynamics, with a peak in market demand in 2012 and a moderation since then, although Martin forecast a growth in demand of 2.5% per year to the end of the forecast period (2020). China is the main player in the EPS market, and its demand is still falling, but is expected to flatten out in 2016. Martin pointed out that mineral wools gained a competitive advantage over the last couple of years since the price of energy dropped, compared to the fall in the cost of feedstock for polymer insulation. Feedstock of benzene-naphtha/styrene-benzene will be constrained in the future, and this is expected to provide a floor to costs at a relatively high level. Global demand is flat but growth will return. Prices will follow styrene costs, but, he concluded, “Grey EPS materials will dominate the future polymer insulation market.”
Tiina Pöhler of the VTT Technical Research Centre in Finland next spoke on the development of wood-based thermal insulation materials. Tiina pointed out that wood-based materials make up less than 1% of the overall insulation market, in the ‘others’ section, and this includes cellulose (recycled papers) wood fibre, flax and animal (sheep) fibres. The amount of pulp and paper production in Finland has decreased markedly in the digital age, down by some 4Mt/yr; new applications are now being sought. Wood fibres are inexpensive and may be chemically or mechanically processed to give materials of different properties. New wood cellulose materials are under development, including cellulose nano fibres by fibrillation (CNF) and cellulose nano crystals (CNC) by acid hydrolysis. Macrofibres have modest insulation performance, whereas the nano-materials have outstanding properties. Existing wood fibre insulation products use virgin wood fibres, which are mechanically defibrated and are then wet or dry processed into panels, or into flexible batts with the addition of long thermobonding fibres. Recycled paper-based products are typically loose blown insulation products. Tiina gave details of some new wood-based insulation products from around the world: A new porous paper-plastic-composite closed-cell material has been trialled, and has been produced in Korea and Japan. A German surfactant-aided foam-based wet papermaking pulp slurry insulation has been produced (further details at wotim.eu), while the Fraunhofer Institute has made an insulation material by grinding wood into a slime, and then introducing a gas into the slime to make the insulation product - further details are not yet available. Melodea Ltd has made cellulose nano fibres from pulp and paper mills using foam preparation by ‘ice templating,’ while other research efforts are also under way. Tiina mentioned the WoTIM multi-organisation project to create a new bio-based cellulosic in-situ spray-on thermal insulation foam to replace traditional spray-on plastic insulation foams. The foam-forming technology uses small air bubbles containing aqueous foam as a process fluid; when the wet fibrous foam is dried, a highly porous fibre structure is formed, of open cells. Thermal conductivity of the material so produced is in the range of 34-37mW/m.K, a little better than other wood-based insulation materials. Compression strength is low at the low bulk densities produced in the experiments. Future developments will include the addition of fire retardants, a decrease of water take-up and means to reduce thermal conductivity yet further.
Steve Jaasund of Lundberg Geoenergy spoke next, on the subject of air emissions control - the first time that the subject has been covered at the Global Insulation Conference. Steve pointed out that the predominant technology used for particulate control for mineral wool cupolas is the use of fabric filters, which can lead to more than 95% collection efficiency. However, CO concentrations can lead to fires and caution must be exercised. Glass melting furnaces produce dry hot gases with low concentrations of particulate matter, with some VOC if recycled cullet glass is used, and with the possibility of the presence of hexavalent chromium from the refractory lining of the kiln; the best emission control technology in this case is fabric filtration or electrostatic precipitation. Wool-forming lines have a low temperature, high volume moist gas streams, with content of resins and glass fibres and some VOCs from resin evaporation; the best emission control is the use of wet scrubbers or wet electrostatic precipitation: less than 10mg/Nm3 can be expected. Care must be taken in this situation to avoid microbiological corrosion. Mineral wool curing lines produce a higher-temperature gas stream with particulate matter consisting of condensed partially-cured resin and entrained glass fibres: regenerative thermal oxidation might be the best technology, but the RTO media may become fouled by recondensed silica minerals. Wool cooling line emissions will be at low temperature and low particulate concentrations, and for these scrubbers or ‘throw-away’ filters can be used. Finally, for rigid foam lines, with low temperature and low VOC concentration, RTO would be the preferred technology, although again, measures must be taken against silane poisoning.
Stefan Winkler of Fuchs Lubritech spoke about the perhaps un-sexy but certainly crucial topic of the high temperature lubrication of chains in the insulation industry. Roller chains are commonly used as drive chains - for example in hardening ovens in mineral wool production - and have high efficiency and quiet operation, but they are expensive and difficult to lubricate. A chain lubricant must have good penetrability, the ability to protect against aggressive ambient conditions such as dust and humidity, a low tendency to build-up solid residues, low evaporation losses, reduction of friction, adhesiveness and environmental compatibility. The optimal point of application is as the chain leaves the driving sprocket, so that the lubricant has time to work its way into the slack chain before it arrives at the driven sprocket. A variety of sophisticated tests can be used to determine the applicability of different lubricants for use in the insulation industry.
Global Insulation Awards Gala Dinner Cruise
In the evening after the conference first day, delegates enjoyed a picturesque night-time cruise along the Bosphorus in a luxurious dining yacht. During the cruise, the Global Insulation Awards were presented, after a two-stage online nomination and voting process. Turkish company ODE was awarded the ‘Insulation company of the year’ award – apposite, perhaps, during the company’s 30th anniversary celebrations. Grenzebach was awarded ‘equipment supplier of the year,’ and Rockwool International’s Doense plant was awarded the ‘plant of the year’ award for its recent upgrade project. Paroc’s eXtra Finnish Standard mineral wool was awarded the ‘product of the year’ award, while Wacker Chemie’s Silres BS 5137 water-repellent emulsion was named as the technical innovation of the year. The Global Insulation ‘Personality of the year’ was awarded to the founder of ODE – the irrepressible Orhan Turan, a popular winner.
Conference second day
Michel Cassart of Total started the second day with a paper on trends in styrenics and on the nano-design of insulation. Michel pointed out that some polystyrenes are found in nature – notably in some of the resins used to mummify corpses in ancient Egypt, and that the natural and synthetic molecules are identical. Now there is a demand worldwide for around 27Mt of styrene monomer, with Asia accounting for around half of the demand. The liquid material is transported worldwide - notably from the US which has an excess, to Asia. Expandable polystyrene accounts for around 6.5Mt/yr of the material and is used for a variety of end products, including insulation. XPS is produced from the raw material, a blowing agent and other additives and the material is then extruded into the form of a board. On the other hand, the raw material for EPS is supplied as a bead with an included blowing agent and all required additives, that is to say, the full formulation: The beads expand in the presence of steam to form the expanded polystyrene. The properties of the products in terms of radiation losses and cell size can be adjusted with changes in blowing agents, with additives and other process variables. ‘Athermanous’ additives to EPS reduce radiation losses, giving rise to grey EPS, and this material is progressively taking over from white EPS in a variety of markets. Total’s own grey EPS product is called Excell-R and boasts 20% improved insulation performance over white EPS.
Michael Schumm of Saint-Gobain Isover G+H next spoke on a new fire barrier for EPS-based ETICS. Exterior Thermal Insulation Composite Systems are insulation systems that are used on the outside of buildings and there are different regulations for buildings of different heights: buildings below 7m in height can use flammable materials, but for buildings between 7-22m in height you are required to use flame resistant materials with a flame barrier every two floors (and for buildings above 22m a non-combustible insulation material must be used - partly due to the length of the ladders used by the firefighters). Although the final system should be fire-resistant, before the final render is applied the system may be fire-prone. A new ‘fire barrier-plus’ consists of a panel of mineral wool with a coated and inclined top surface, which avoids a candle-effect from burning foam insulation and which absorbs liquified styrenes in an oxygen-deficient wedge, which will not allow the material to burn and flash over.
Simon Waddington of Novomer then presented a paper about the use of CO2-based polymers for insulation. The basis of the Co2nverge method is the use of a proprietary catalyst that uses waste CO2 and an epoxide to produce polycarbonate polyols with a high density carbonate backbone which is economically attractive to produce due to the use of low-cost CO2 as a major ingredient, and which at the same time sustainably sequesters CO2. These polyols can be used to make rigid polyisocyanurate insulation foams. Development of the process has focused on optimising blends and on processing - at first the viscosity of the material was too high to allow it to be effectively pumped around the processing machines but this problem has now been addressed, partly through the use of blends. A variety of additives are required to enhance the properties of the final material, including flame retardants, although these CO2-based polyols have a lower heat of combustion which can translate to a reduced flame retardant requirement. An industrial-scale trial has been undertaken and now Novomer is in the planning phase of building a 100,000t/yr plant to produce its products.
Markus Roos of Evonik next spoke about what he called ‘magic additives,’ the use of organic modified siloxanes as a process and performance additive for insulation materials. Markus pointed out that siloxanes are perfect chemicals for controlling the interfaces between difference phases: liquid to solid; liquid to gas and other combinations. Markus stated that silicones are already widely used in the insulation industry, including as water repellents, wetting agents, release agents, defoamers, softeners, dispersants, air stabilisers and drainage aids. Siloxanes are compounds that contain Si-O-Si bonds and they come in a very wide range of variants. Organomodified siloxanes have organic groups fixed to the siloxane backbone which can radically modify the properties of the compound, for example making an oil soluble in water. The low surface tension of the compounds helps to reduce the dosage required and, depending on the functional groups, the compounds can be made to be hydrophilic or hydrophobic. Critically, the compounds permanently bind to building materials, enhancing processing, surface and material properties.
Jérémy Dutrey of Gascogne Flexible ended the presentation programme by speaking about adding value to insulation through the use of facing products. Jérémy pointed out that most insulation properties are given by the insulation itself, but part of an insulation board will need an appropriate facing to improve insulation properties, to improve appearance and to help with production or processing. He suggested that the use of a facing material is key for the efficiency of PIR materials, for reflective foils and for VIPs and that facings can usefully add value to nearly all insulation types. Facings can bring mechanical strength, thermal efficiency (through gas tightness), fire retardancy in some cases and enhancement to the visual appearance of the product in almost all cases. At the same time, the facing layer is required to have good adhesion to the substrate, to have temperature stability or the ability to match the thermal dimensional changes of the insulation and to have good printability. Facing materials may be paper or Kraft-based or may be composed of foils or other materials; Jérémy concluded that up to nine separate layers may be combined to provide the desired combination of properties.
Conference prize-giving
At the end of the conference, a cocktail party was held, during which the conference prizes were awarded: Grenzebach was awarded the ‘best exhibition stand’ prize. After delegate voting, prizes were awarded for the top three most popular presentations: Vadim Novikov was third for his paper on the influence of the Russian economic crisis on insulation demand; Michel Cassart was second for his paper on worldwide trends in styrenics; but the winner of the best presentation award was Michael Schumm of Saint-Gobain Isover G+H for his paper on a new fire barrier for EPS-based ETICS.
The conference and exhibition were highly rated by attendees – particularly for technical content and for networking potential. The next Global Insulation Conference – the 11th – will take place in Hamburg in September 2016 and is expected to be the largest event yet – we look forward to meeting you there!
