Insulation industry news from Global Insulation

Egypt: GlassRock Insulation Company, part of regional mining platform Ascom, has reported the successful completion of the commissioning phase of its new production line for glass wool. The new production line will produce 20,000t/yr of glass wool increasing the plant's total production to 50,000t/yr, of which 30,000t/yr is mineral wool.

"We are exceptionally proud to be manufacturing these strategic insulation materials, which can be used as both residential thermal insulation and as acoustic insulation. Our products can help to significantly reduce the impact of the energy crisis that Egypt is currently facing," said chief executive officer Bechir Dardour. According to Dardour the glass wool insulation that will be produced in GlassRock's Sadat City Free Zone plant is being manufactured principally with local materials.

In September 2012 GlassRock announced the launch of its first mineral wool production line. The company is now targeting exports to key markets in Europe, North Africa, the Gulf Cooperation Countries and Turkey.

Egypt: GlassRock Insulation Co. has started targeting exports of mineral wool to key markets in Europe, North Africa, the Gulf Cooperation Council countries and Turkey following the start of production at its US$70m Egyptian greenfield facility in May 2012. The company, part of a portfolio owned by Citadel Capital's regional mining platform ASCOM, will also begin production of glass wool insulation in September 2012.

"Our goal is to become a world-class provider of heat and noise insulation solutions," said GlassRock Insulation chief executive officer Bechir Dardour. "Energy-efficient building materials are the only option going forward in Egypt and around the world and we are delighted to be part of the solution to the creation of a greener, more environmentally-friendly future."

Construction of the US$70m greenfield GlassRock plant, located eqhalf-way between Cairo and Alexandria in the Sadat City Free Zone, began in 2010. The facility has created 260 direct jobs and operates with technology licensed from Italy's Tenova. When fully operational GlassRock's production capacity will be 30,000Mt/yr of mineral wool and 20,000Mt/yr of glass wool.

Spain: Renewable energy advisory firm Renovetec has conducted research into fires at a number of concentrating solar power (CSP) plants in Spain. According to the company, mineral wool used to line the piping containing the heat transfer fluid (HTF) in these plants' solar fields is to blame.

"On occasions the causes of the fires have been unclear," explains Santiago García Garrido, Technical Director of Renovetec. "The HTF has behaved differently to the specifications on its safety sheet".

Renovetec has published an article on its work which examines the relationship between the thermal insulation used to line heat transfer piping and the fires, after the company managed to reproduce the conditions leading to certain fires under laboratory conditions. The tests performed by Renovetec show that the thermal insulation can ignite at below 200°C, whereby there is a risk of spontaneous combustion even if there is no ignition spark or other ignition source.

"This explains some of the incidents at a number of CSP plants," says the company especially given that the ignition point of the HTF generally used in CSP plants (biphenyl and diphenyl oxide) is 615°C – a temperature which is highly unlikely to be reached anywhere on site.

Witnesses of some of the fires recall that the incidents arose when some of the HTF escaped from the piping installed in the solar field soaking the thermal insulation (which is normally mineral wool) covered by an aluminium jacket. On removing the aluminium jacket, the mineral wool occasionally ignited spontaneously. These fires started despite the technical specifications of the HTF manufactured by Dow Chemical and Solutia indicating that the fluid would not ignite.

The outcome of Renovetec's experiment to reproduce the conditions leading to the fires is conclusive: on certain occasions the point of spontaneous combustion is not as reflected in the safety sheets of these HTF, with the liquid igniting at temperatures below 203°C.

Kazakhstan: A new Vodokanalstroy Company mineral wool plant has started operation in the city of Karaganda in Karaganda region as part of the Business Roadmap-2020 programme.

The executive director of the company, Mikhail Lashkov, said, "The project cost USD11.2m. The sources of financing were our own funds, accounting for USD7.6m and a loan of USD3.7m borrowed at an interest rate of 7%/yr."

According to Lashkov, the production capacity of the plant is 85,000m3/yr of thermal insulation material. "The main product of the plant are mineral wool slabs with Misot synthetic binding agent," he added. The raw materials for the products are sourced from ArcelorMittal Temirtau.

"There is a huge demand for heat insulation materials in Kazakhstan and 85% of such products are imported. Now the imports can be reduced," said Lashkov.

Ukraine: Ukrainian producers of thermal insulation made from mineral fibres are looking increasingly at potential sales markets outside the country, because demand there is just 20-30% of that in central and western European countries and the country has significant overcapacity.

Since 2008, additional plants with total mineral wool capacity of 170,000-175,000t/yr have gone online in the country but the domestic market has been unable to absorb the material. According to a provisional assessment, 78,500t of mineral wool based on basalt fibres and 24,000t of glass wool were sold in the Ukraine in 2010.

Insulation imports fell from 115,000t in 2008 to 50,400t in 2009, but are thought to have risen slightly to around 55,000t in 2010.