Insulation industry news from Global Insulation

US: Hemp Inc.’s Hempcrete insulation panels have received approval for residential construction use in an appendix to the US Residential Building Code. Hempcrete insulation consists of hemp stalk hurd and lime. It is fire-resistant, moisture regulating and sequesters CO₂ naturally due to its hemp content.

Hemp Inc. operates a multi-purpose hemp processing plant in Spring Hope, North Carolina.

UK: Knauf Insulation’s St Helens, Merseyside, glass wool insulation plant team raised Euro2300 on a 6.5km sponsored walk in memory of a colleague who died in January 2022. Hot end process operator Gareth ‘Gaz’ Moore died of an undiagnosed heart condition at the age of 40.

St Helens plant community team member Sean Ashall said “We were delighted to have raised enough money to buy two defibrillators.” The team will install one of the machines at the St Helens Sea Cadets Barracks and another at the Pilkington Recs Rugby Club ground.

China/US: France-based Arkema has announced progress at two locations towards increasing the production capacity of its blowing agent product Forane 1233ZD. In China the group says its partner Aofan has started operation at a production plant. In the US at Calvert City, Kentucky the group has broken ground on the construction of an upgrade to a production line at its existing plant. The US$60m project is expected to be completed by early 2024. Both units are intended to increase the global availability of the Forane 1233ZD product.

The chemicals company is promoting the use of fluorinated liquid blowing agent due to its sustainability advantages. The product is used primarily in closed celled polyurethane foam for building insulation and cold chain applications. It also has applications for the thermal management of batteries in electric vehicles.

Russia: Denmark-based Rockwool says that it is entirely out of contact with its Russian business, under on-going EU trade sanctions against the country. As such, the group now views its relationship to its Russian plants merely as an ownership of shares.

EnergiWatch has reported that Saint-Gobain has described a similar situation in relation to its operations in the sanctioned nation. The France-based producer said "The Russian part of our business has lived a self-governing and strangled existence since the start of the invasion. This happened to secure jobs for our employees." It added "We have stopped all investment projects."

Romania: Knauf Insulation has begun mineral wool production at its recently acquired Tarnaveni plant in central Romania after investing Euro4m in upgrades. The investment covered the initial stages of modernisation at the Gecsat plant production line in Mures County, according to a Knauf press release.

A second stage of refurbishment began in September 2022. Once the entire investment plan is implemented, the Knauf Insulation factory in Tarnaveni will have an annual production capacity of about 60,000t/yr of mineral wool, with the aim of serving both domestic needs, as well as markets in Central and Eastern Europe.

Founded in 1918 in Tarnaveni as Ardeleana Glass Factory, former owner Gecsat started producing glass mineral wool at the site in 2007. Knauf announced that it was acquiring the glass mineral wool plant in January 2022 and became its owner in March 2022.