Insulation industry news from Global Insulation

Belgium: Recticel’s Simfocor polyurethane board product has been certified a ‘Solar Impulse Efficient Solution’ by the Solar Impulse Foundation. The label is awarded to products, services or processes combining credible environmental and economic performance. It also means that Simfocor joins the Solar Impulse Foundation’s list of products selected for their contribution to clean economic growth.

Simfocor is part of the ‘Recticel Silence’ insulation range and is currently sold in France and Spain. It is a polyurethane insulation board that is marketed for both its acoustic and thermal insulation properties. The product is made of recycled polyurethane foams sourced from discarded mattresses.

US: Saint-Gobain North America has started a program where windshield glass scraps are recycled and reused in the production of insulation. Waste glass from the company’s Saint-Gobain Sekurit’s unit at Garden Grove in California is sent to CertainTeed Insulation’s facility at Chowchilla, where it is use to make fibreglass insulation. Saint-Gobain is working with Shark Solutions on the project. The initiative started earlier in 2022.

US: Owens Corning has achieved inclusion on the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index 2022, topping the Building Materials category. The producer scored 88 out of 100 for sustainable performance across multiple indices. It recorded full marks for environmental reporting, materiality, recycling strategy, risk and crisis management and social reporting.

Owens Corning's senior vice president and chief sustainability officer David Rabuano said, "Earning placement on this index for the 13th consecutive year is a validation of the daily efforts of our colleagues across our operations globally. I am proud that their hard work and diligence in our sustainability efforts continues to be the driver of our leadership on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index - and an ongoing contributor to achieving our goals for 2030 and beyond."

Europe: Dow has announced the European launch of V PLUS Perform Next, a polyurethane (PU) insulation product for use in insulated metal panels. V PLUS Perform Next insulation contains alternative raw materials from circular feedstocks, including bio-based feedstocks. Dow allocates the feedstocks based on a mass balance chain of custody, validated by International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC). It produces V PLUS Perform Next using over 25% renewable energy.

Dow PU construction insulation marketing fellow Alberto Mercati said “The new EU Energy Performance of Buildings directive adds urgency for buildings that require energy efficient insulation with decreased embodied carbon. For the last five years, V PLUS Perform has enabled insulated metal panel manufacturers to deliver building envelopes that couple energy efficiency and fire safety. V PLUS Perform Next supports insulated panel manufacturers to select lower carbon and circular construction ingredients from the design phase to the delivery of a novel class of products for more sustainable buildings.”

Germany: Knauf Insulation has launched new overwraps on its global insulation product portfolio. The new packaging reduces ink consumption by 70% through its design, featuring a white or off-white base hue and no more than one additional colour. The wraps are designed to maximise ease and efficiency and reduce cost of recycling. This is in line with Knauf Insulation's commitment to recycle over 25% of packaging by 2025. Within the same timeframe, it also aims to reduce its packaging's virgin plastic consumption by 25% and collect over 35% of delivery pallets for repair and reuse or recycling.

Denmark: Sweden-based Indutrade has concluded an agreement to acquire foam producer Bramming Plast-Industri. The parties expect to close the transaction later in 2022.

Bramming Plast-Industri's products include Inotan polyurethane (PU) and polyisocyanurate (PIR) foams and Setex recycled PU granular foam.

Germany: Chemicals producer BASF has partnered with RAMPF Eco Solutions, Poland-based Remondis Electrorecycling and engineering company KraussMaffei to develop depolymerisation techniques to produce polyol from waste polyurethane (PU) fridge insulation, as an alternative to natural hydrocarbons. The recovered polyol could then be used as a raw material in PU insulation production.

BASF said "This innovative process is particularly challenging because it has to be very robust in order to reliably convert post-consumer waste with high levels of foreign substances into a high-quality recycled polyol.”

Waste fridge insulation's only current use is as an alternative fuel by the energy sector.

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."

US: Knauf Insulation has won a contract to recycle waste glass bottles from the NTT IndyCar Series Big Machine Music City Grand Prix in Nashville, Tennessee, on 5 – 7 August 2022.

Knauf Insulation’s vice president of sustainability and health, safety and environment Chris Mahin said "These types of unique recycling opportunities are valuable for Knauf as we continue to seek alternative sources for glass – the main ingredient in our high quality glass wool insulation.”

US: Knauf Insulation is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the beginning of operations at its Shasta Lake glass wool insulation plant in California. Local press has reported that the company increased its capacity by 70% over the past two decades. Today, the Shasta Lake plant employs 156 people. It has implemented sustainable practices in its production, including the use of ECOSE Technology plant-based binders in the place of petrochemical alternatives. It also recycles 600,000 glass bottles daily, constituting 50% of its glass consumption. This presented the plant with difficulties when Covid-19 lockdowns reduced local waste glass generation.