Insulation industry news from Global Insulation

US: In 2019 Owens Corning sourced 1.58GWh of energy renewably (49% of total consumption), down by 14% year-on-year from 1.84GWh (52% of consumption) in 2018. Direct CO₂ emissions were 2.78Mt, down by 2.0% from 2.83Mt in 2018 due a reduction in carbon intensity of insulation production, such as the use of electric rather than coke-fired furnaces.

UK: Global not-for-profit organisation CDP has included Owens Corning on its Climate Change A-List 2019 for environmental transparency and performance aimed at facilitating a zero-net carbon economy. Only a handful of industrial producers achieved inclusion on the list, including France-based Saint-Gobain and Germany-based HeidelbergCement and steel producer Thyssenkrupp.

China/Japan: Researchers from Kyoto University, the University of Tokyo in Japan and Jiangsu Normal University in China have developed a new material that can selectively capture carbon dioxide (CO₂) molecules and convert them into ‘useful’ organic materials, including a precursor for polyurethane. The research project has been described in the journal Nature Communications.

The material is a porous coordination polymer (PCP, also known as a metal-organic framework), a framework consisting of zinc metal ions. The researchers tested their material using X-ray structural analysis and found that it can selectively capture only CO₂ molecules with ten times more efficiency than other PCPs. The material has an organic component with a propeller-like molecular structure, and as CO₂ molecules approach the structure, they rotate and rearrange to permit CO₂ trapping, resulting in slight changes to the molecular channels within the PCP. This allows it to act as molecular sieve that can recognise molecules by size and shape. The PCP is also recyclable; the efficiency of the catalyst did not decrease even after 10 reaction cycles.

After capturing the carbon, the converted material can be used to make polyurethane, a material with a wide variety of applications including insulation materials.

US: The chief executive officers (CEO) of 13 US companies, including BASF and DuPont, are lobbying the President and Congress to enact business-led climate change legislation. This initiative, known as the CEO Climate Dialogue, urges the government to put in place a long-term federal policy as soon as possible, in accordance with a set of six guiding principles. The group aims to build bipartisan support for climate policies that it says will, “… increase regulatory and business certainty, reduce climate risk, and spur investment and innovation needed to meet science-based emissions reduction targets.”

Companies involved in the CEO Dialogue include BASF, BP, Citi, Dominion Energy, Dow, DTE Energy, DuPont, Exelon, Ford Motor Company, LafargeHolcim, PG&E, Shell, and Unilever. Four environmental groups have also supplied input to the initiative. These are the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, Environmental Defense Fund, the Nature Conservancy and World Resources Institute.

The six principles include: ‘significantly’ reducing US greenhouse gas emissions; allowing an effective timeline for reductions that will enable capital intensive industries to adjust in an ‘economically rational manner’; instituting a market-based price on carbon; making the policies durable and responsible; doing no harm to the competitiveness of the US economy with particular attention to carbon leakage; and promoting equity. Specifically the initiative says that US policy should ensure the country is on a path to achieve economy-wide emissions reductions of 80% or more by 2050 with ‘aggressive’ short and medium term emissions reductions.

“DuPont is pleased to be part of the CEO Climate Dialogue and support its guiding principles to accelerate the development of federal policy on climate change. At DuPont, our science and innovation is inextricably linked with sustainability practices that deliver specialised materials that contribute to a safer, healthier, more sustainable world. We believe strong, consistent policy measures and a cohesive regulatory environment are needed to accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy and foster innovation, investment and economic growth,” said Marc Doyle, CEO-Elect of DuPont.

UK: The Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has published figures that map the UK's performance in installing energy-saving residential insulation. In a local, council-by-council energy breakdown in conjunction with the Energy Saving Trust (EST), the department's figures showed that five of the country's worst performing local councils for installing home insulation were in London.

The London councils contrasted sharply with Kirklees, Yorkshire and Anglesey, Wales, which were revealed as the nation's top performing local authorities with 24.8% and 22.5% of their respective stock insulated. The largest number of insulation fittings that were carried out in 2010 were in Birmingham with a total of 12,079. Energy Secretary Chris Huhne said, "For those who haven't yet insulated their home, I'd really recommend them to pick up the phone, call the EST and check out the help available to cut bills."

Installing insulation forms part of the government's Carbon Emissions Reduction Target scheme and supplements schemes in the forthcoming Green Deal from 2012. As part of the initiative, fuel companies have been told by the coalition government to help homeowners improve their energy efficiency. British Gas, which has a 20% market share in UK gas supply, has recently announced a free insulation installation deal for its customers as part of the plans.

India: A new Rockwool insulation plant has been opened up in Dahej, Gujarat. The company claims that the material it produces will have the ability to save 1Bnt/yr of CO₂ if applied.

Frank Jacobs, Managing Director-Rockwool Technical Insulation, said, "If the insulation materials produced in our new facility in India are not installed, a forest with almost the size of the state of Gujarat would need to be planted to compensate for the resulting CO₂ emissions. Effective insulation of technical installations-such as hot pipes, boilers and tanks-can save literally millions of tonnes of CO₂, helping to protect the environment, whilst at the same time saving operators millions of rupees."

US: Owens Corning has released its 5th annual Sustainability Report, outlining the company's environmental footprint reduction performance. "Our 2010 Sustainability Report demonstrates Owens Corning's continued focus on and progress towards improvements in greening our operations and products and accelerating energy efficiency and renewables penetration in the built environment," said Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer Frank O'Brien-Bernini. "We have met three of our seven goals already and are confident that six of the seven goals will be achieved by 2012."

Among the key accomplishments highlighted in the report is a 24% intensity reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions compared to 2009 levels. The company removed 950,000t of CO2 from its operations in 2010, which is equivalent to eliminating the CO2 impact of more than 170,000 passenger cars. The report also detailed progress towards intensity reductions in energy usage, and reductions in nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds, particulate matter, waste-to-landfill contributions and water usage.

The company took the opportunity to launch a new set of 2020 goals designed to raise the bar on its commitment to sustainability. The announced 2020 goals will target reductions in energy, greenhouse gas, water, toxic air emissions, particulate matter and waste-to-landfill measures, as well as supplier sustainability and life cycle assessments.

"These new goals raise the bar on our commitment to sustainability and reflect an increasingly holistic approach that encompasses how our company operates, the attributes of our products and our desire to affect change by partnering with our customers and suppliers to deliver sustainable solutions," added O'Brien-Bernini.

The disagreement comes at the same time as the publication of an article in the journal Respirology that warns of massive rises in deaths from asbestos-related lung diseases in Asia in the coming decades. Dr Ken Takahashi, Acting Director of the World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre for Occupational Health (WHOCCOH) and his team put together data on asbestos use in 47 Asian countries for the report.

Asian countries accounted for 64% of the global consumption of asbestos in 2001-2007, a striking increase from 14% between 1920 and 1970. This is the result of unregulated asbestos import and use in many Asian countries.

China: Asia can improve its energy-efficiency and cut carbon emissions by adopting proven energy-saving technologies, but this has to be supplemented with regulations and market-driven energy pricing to be effective, according to the vice-chairman of the German chemical giant BASF. Beijing's practice of setting energy prices below those in the free market mean some opportunities had been lost due to poor economic fundamentals, said Dr Martin Brudermueller.

"If you look at the low energy cost in China, and you take the top one million households in Chongqing and you say you will reduce the air-conditioning cost by 50%, you end up with only US$280 of savings per year per household. You could hardly invest this in building insulation because it simply doesn't pay off," he said.

BASF is working on several projects to provide insulation materials for Chinese buildings that help cut heating and air-conditioning demand. Brudermueller says up to 60% of energy consumption can be cut with retrofitting. In addition to insulation, energy can be saved by treating floors to make them reflect heat and pigments can be added to building materials to reflect infrared lights - even if the materials are black. He added that China's energy consumption per square metre of floor space is two to three times higher on average than that seen in the EU.