It is well known that cellular glass is used for the thermal insulation of the bottom of all kind of tanks for liquified (cold) gas. Most tanks are built for Liquified Natural Gas at -162°C. Thermal insulation is needed to avoid as much as possible boiling off. In case of the bottom, the thermal insulation has to be load bearing. Today, cellular glass is the only candidate for this task.

Besides ZES FOAMGLASS, also GLAPOR is entering this market. The slightly higher thermal conductivity compared to more expensive variants is compensated by a larger thickness, which becomes negligible on the full dimensions of the tank. The larger Europallet dimensions allow a faster installation of the cellular glass.

To be able to install the GLAPOR cellular glass blocks, hot bitumen or a bitumen felt can be used. According to their impressive reference list, IKO is able to deliver the right bitumen felts. In their reference list, Pluvex No1 is used for cryogenic applications. In the  CE-Declaration-of-Performance-Pluvex-DPC, we find also PLUVEX Tankbase DPC, which is polymer based. In a personal communication with IKO, we found out that about 70% of the tanks are built with Pluvex No1.

In all cases, the concrete walls are protected with cellular glass at the inside against a sudden leak of the cold liquid. Without this protection, the concrete wall should rupture. A well suited adhesive to adhere the GLAPOR cellular glass boards on the concrete is TEMATI 8182 which is a polyurethane based adhesive with imporved temperature behaviour.

A LNG terminal typically involves 5000m² thermal insulation. The larger GLAPOR boards with europallet dimensions 80 x 120 cm are reducing enormoulsy the installation labour and in that way the cost. Even larger dimensions (2.8 x 1.5m) can be considered if the boards are installed dry with a bitumen felt.

GLAPOR boards are directly foamed from recycled glass and can be sold at about 250€/m³ for very large quantities with a thermal conductivity about 25% larger than  ZES cellular glass foamed from a special glass composition. For a slight increase of the height of the tank (less than 10cm), a serious cost saving is possible for the tank builder.

SGGC  (SchaumGlas Global Consulting GmbH) installed a production line for cellular glass gravel in the USA. The line is used for  hydroponic applications. This is a subset of hydroculture where plants are grown without soil. In this case, the roots are supported by the (cellular glass) gravel and have access to much more oxygen and exactly the amount of water they need.

The above production line runs with fine powder waste glass, mixed with calcium carbonate and is heated with gas from landfill. The plant is built next to this landfill reducing transport to the minimum. The product they produce is called Growstones.

In fact, the roots of plants are settled into the Growstones, while all neceassary ingredients are introduced diluted in water. It seems that Growstones are the best material for this kind of hydroculture due to the best balance of water holding capacity and air filled porosity.

An in principle objective paper is given in this link.