Insulation industry news from Global Insulation

Germany: BASF is developing a pilot project to make insulation panels from plastics waste as part of its ChemCycling project. The company is making ethylene and propylene from the waste to use as raw material for further chemical manufacturing. Other projects the company is testing using waste plastics with include mozzarella packaging and refrigerator components.

“With our ChemCycling project, we are using plastic waste as a resource. In this way, we create value for the environment, society and the economy. We have joined forces with partners throughout the value chain to establish a working circular model,” said Martin Brudermüller, chairman of the board of executive directors and chief technology officer of BASF.

BASF feeds oil derived from plastic waste by an oiling process into the Production Verbund process. BASF gets this feedstock for the pilot products from Recenso in Germany. As an alternative, syngas made from plastic waste can also be used. The first batch of this oil was fed into the steam cracker at BASF’s site in Ludwigshafen in October 2018. The steam cracker is the starting point for Verbund production. It breaks down or ‘cracks’ this raw material at temperatures of around 850°C. The primary outputs of the process are ethylene and propylene. Under the mass balance approach, the share of recycled raw material can be mathematically allocated to the final certified product. Each customer can select the allocated percentage of recycled material.

BASF is working with its customers and partners, which range from waste management companies to technology providers and packaging producers, to build a circular value chain. Its next step is to make the first products from the ChemCycling project commercially available. However, technological and regulatory conditions need to be met on a regional basis before the project is market-ready.

UK: SIG has forecast in a trading update that its sales revenue will fall by 2.3% year-on-year in 2018. It described the UK trading environment as increasingly ‘challenging’ in the second half of 2018 with commercial demand reduced by economic uncertainty, slower house price inflation and falling secondary housing market transactions. Conditions in France and Germany were also reported as slowing down in the second half.

US: The board of directors of Owens Corning has elected Brian Chambers as chief executive officer (CEO) from 18 April 2019. He will succeed Mike Thaman, who has decided to retire from the role. Thaman will remain with the company as executive chairman.

Chambers, who was promoted to president and chief operating officer (COO) in August 2018, will retain the title of president as he assumes the CEO role. Previously, he served as president of the company’s Roofing business since 2014. Overall, he has 15 years of management experience with Owens Corning in a variety of positions, including roles with the company’s Composites and Building Materials businesses. He also spent over three years as the president of Saint-Gobain’s Distribution business in North America following Owens Corning’s divestiture of the business in which he served as president.

US: Kingspan Insulation has appointed Doug Crawford as its new Managing Director in charge of operations for North America. Crawford's appointment became effective on 2 January 2019.

Crawford has held numerous roles in corporate development and line management for Oldcastle (CRH) over the last decade. He most recently served as Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Meadow Burke Products, a manufacturer and supplier of accessories for concrete construction. Prior to joining Oldcastle, Crawford was a consultant with the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). He holds a Bachelor of Science in Finance from Pennsylvania State University and an MBA from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management.

UK: The UK government plans to adopt the recommendations made by Dame Judith Hackitt in her review of building regulations and fire safety published following the Grenfell Tower fire in mid-2017. Other commitments the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government has made include creating a new regulatory and accountability framework to provide greater oversight of the industry and introducing clearer standards and guidance, including establishing a new Standards Committee to advise on construction product and system standards and regulations. It says it will place residents at the heart of the new system, with new routes for engagement and redress, and that it wants to help create a culture change and a more responsible building industry. In addition to setting out its plans to implement the changes called for by Hackitt, the government says that a full review of fire safety guidance within building regulations has also been launched.