Insulation industry news from Global Insulation

Germany: Saint-Gobain subsidiary Isover has announced the upcoming closure of the glass wool line at its Bergisch Gladbach plant in North Rhine-Westphalia. Energate Messenger News has reported that this is due to a local homebuilding ‘slump’ and reduced export volumes. As a result, Isover will cancel a planned green hydrogen plant project at the site.

Isover will now relocate ‘part of the production lost’ from Bergisch Gladbach to its Speyer plant in Rhineland-Palatinate.

UK: Saint-Gobain subsidiary Isover has installed water meters and monitoring technologies at its Runcorn insulation plant in Cheshire. The initiative aims to reduce the plant’s consumption of water by 30ML/yr, 30% of its use in 2030.

Plant sustainability champion Matt Hill said “Reducing water consumption in our production processes is central to our sustainability journey at Isover. Through investments such as these, we’re not only reducing our environmental impact but also demonstrating our unwavering commitment to building a more sustainable future." He added "By 2023, we had reduced our total water withdrawal by 22% compared to 2017, and thanks to these continuing improvements, we have already further reduced this by more than 20% in 2024 compared to 2023."

Denmark: Saint-Gobain’s subsidiaries Isover and Leca have started an agreement with waste management company Norrecco to recycle glass wool insulation. Under the new system, contractors will be able to return used and excess Isover glass wool to Norrecco's waste treatment stations at Prøvestenen in Copenhagen and at Agerskov in Southern Jutland. Norrecco will then pass the glass wool to Leca Denmark’s plant at Hinge near Randers. Here it will be used as a raw material in the production of lightweight expanded clay aggregate (LWA) products. LWA is used in a variety of applications such as insulation or as a structural filler. Leca added that LWA can be recycled repeatedly.

Mona Ammitzbøll Rasmussen, the Sustainability Engineer at Saint-Gobain Denmark, said "From the moment our glass wool leaves the factory, we want to support the idea that the material will one day return and be used in the production of new insulation materials, rather than ending up in landfills. It is an unnecessary waste that we need to eliminate as soon as possible."

Leca Denmark has the capacity to accept around 1000t/yr of used or excess glass wool from the Danish market. The company said that, although it represents a small portion of the total production, it reduces the need to extract a corresponding amount of natural clay, which is the primary raw material in its Leca LWA product. Isover is also working on publishing guides to better help contractors sort between the different types of mineral wool to assess purity ahead of potential recycling.

France: Saint-Gobain subsidiary Isover has begun construction of a prototype glass wool recycling plant in Chemillé-en-Anjou. Contractor Eiffage Génie Civil is executing the project, which is scheduled for commissioning in 2023.

Isover France and Switzerland technical director Jérôme Saulnier saud "The realisation of this revolutionary industrial prototype with fusion by immersed burners will make it possible to recycle glass wool in industrial quantities, transforming it into cullet. This cullet will be used in the manufacturing process of our insulating products and will also reduce our energy consumption, our carbon emissions and improve the life cycle of our products."

France: Isover plans to spend Euro120m on increasing the production capacity of its existing production lines and building a new line by 2025. The subsidiary of Saint-Gobain says the move will add over 70,000t/yr to its glass wool production capacity. The move is in response to “very strong demand driven by energy renovation.”

Euro20m of the planned investment will be targeted at decarbonising production and developing the circular economy. Isover intends to install a treatment unit for deconstruction waste to be reincorporated into the production process as a substitute for virgin raw materials. It also wants to increase in the proportion of recycled glass used in the production process to 80% by 2025.

Isover operates three glass wool plants in France, at Chalonsur-Saône, Chemillé and Orange respectively.

Spain: Saint-Gobain Isover has launched APTA Arena 48, a 48mm thick variant of its sand mineral wool product. It is intended for use with internal partition walls with the 48mm grid system. The product offers thermal resistance of 1.40m2K/W with λ = 34mW/mK.

Spain: Saint-Gobain Isover has donated Climaver Star mineral wool insulation for use in the construction of the coronavirus field hospital at La Zarzuela University Hospital in Madrid.

On 23 April 2020 Spain’s confirmed coronavirus case count was 213,024, with 22,157 deaths.

Spain: Isover has launched APTA Arena, a new product in its APTA sand mineral wool line. It says it is intended for interior divisions offering high thermal and acoustic performance. The product is also made from over 50% of recycled materials and can be fully recycled after use.

France: Isover France has launched Isover Recycling, a closed-loop recycling service for construction and demolition glass wool waste. The new service has been developed in partnership with recycling specialists. It aims to reduce glass wool dumping in landfill and increase the proportion of recycled content in Isover’s glass wool insulation products. The Isover Recycling service is currently being deployed in two pilot areas: South-East France and Ile-de-France. It will then be rolled-out across the rest of the country. Other countries like Switzerland, Denmark and Sweden already offer construction site waste recycling services.

Romania: Saint-Gobain Isover is upgrading its Ploiesti mineral wool plant. A modernisation and extension project of its stone wool production line is scheduled to start operation in the second half of 2019. The upgrade will increase the plant’s production capacity to 30,000t/yr and extend its range of products for the Romanian market and neighbouring countries.

Saint-Gobain Isover has run operations on its Ploiesti site since 1997, with a glass wool line currently being modernised and due to start up in July 2018, and a stone wool line.