Up to now, I was convinced that waste water cleaning happens outside in open air. But it seems that the new technology is installed inside. According to Johan Allegaert, professional in waste water cleaning, there are several reasons to work in this way:

• Temperature control of the water cleaning process
• Absolute control of odours
• Elimination of a risk to have an animal cadaver in the water during cleaning

Such a building contains a huge humidity and as a consequence, the architect has to choose for cellular glass, being absolutely vapour tight.The project description is given here under:

Obsolete technology and insufficient capacity of the existing wastewater treatment plant are two main reasons for which the Jesenice councillors decided to build a new wastewater treatment plant. On Monday 6 October 2008, work on this project was open at a ceremony attended by Petr Bendl, Governor of the Central Bohemian region.

The new wastewater treatment plant will be located in one roofed L-shaped structure sized 44.5 x 27 metres. The whole technology will be concentrated inside the building, from rough pre-cleaning to the rain tank, biological lines and final sedimentation tanks upto sludge handling and disposal. “The project also includes roads, fencing, tube and cable lines and also modification of the existing discharging structure“, said Zdeněk Pánek, Mayor of Jesenice, at the ceremony. The new wastewater treatment plant will have a capacity of 7,500 EO (i.e. equivalent inhabitants) and will sufficiently cover not only the current needs but also future projected development of the village.

Jesenice and the neighbouring villages have a permanent population of 5,500. However, the real number of inhabitants can be over 6,500, because people usually do not change their permanent residence due to administrative requirements connected with change of the seat of the firm. For the following period, Jesenice is preparing to invest even more in the environment. Villages Horní Jirčany and Osnice will get a new water supply and sewerage system worth over CZK 60 mililon and a new waste collection yard; green areas in the village will be substantially expanded, too.

For ecologic and economic reasons, the customer has chosen for (thicker) GLAPOR cellular glass from Germany. GLAPOR boards are delivered with 80 x 60 cm dimensions, reducing labour cost.

Every management training should focus on creativity and feel well in the company. GLAPOR is a nice example of that philosophy and has made a very interesting year with large projects and new products thanks to this management style.

Newspapers don´t miss such items and report about these events. It demonstrates  the good atmosphere in a company when collaborators take such initiatives and this attitude shows up in the product and services.

2017 will become the year of cellular glass, directly foamed from recycled glass in very large dimensions. Cellular glass will no longer only insulate buildings but will be simply the building kernel, replacing bricks and concrete.

The American International School in Bucharest (AISB) is investing in an early childhood department. The mission of this school is clear:

Under the leadership of Mrs. Rosella Diliberto, the Early Childhood brings together 162 children between 2 and 6 years old in a dynamic, multinational environment that represents 39 nationalities. Every Early Childhood classroom is looked after by a teacher and classroom assistant. The new Early Childhood Center will be ready in January 2017 – a unique project that will house our youngest learners!

To accomplish this mission, the AISB, in collaboration with Synergy  has chosen for GLAPOR cellular glass for the following reasons:

• The contractor likes to work with large EUROCLASS A1 cellular glass boards up to 80 x 120 cm dimensions. Today, GLAPOR cellular glass is the only company on the world offering these dimensions in an EUROCLASS A1 quality. EUROCLASS A1 means totally non-combustible.
• The project also involves the installation of solar panels on the roof requesting a rather large strength of the thermal insulation.
• The customer has chosen  for cellular glass, directly foamed from recycled glass without remelting for ecologic and economic reasons.

This fantastic project subscribes the famous American values of life: a multinational environment for children, built with absolute safe and ecologic materials.

Once it is realized that the market for non-combustible stiff thermal insulation is growing, investors will look for a cellular glass plant. Some years ago, this technology was not for sale, but this situation has changed. Investors can choose for cellular glass gravel or boards. For boards, there is the choice between cheaper glycerin foamed cellular glass and the much more expensive one, produced with carbon black.

GLAPOR cellular glass delivers production line for gravel and boards. This company is specialized in upgrading glass waste to cellular glass boards and gravel with a minimum of energy, raw materials and labor thanks to the continuous foaming system.

CNUD EFCO builds foaming and annealing furnaces. The foaming furnace is able to foam with carbon black. CNUD EFCO is the right partner for the construction of high quality boards with the continuous foaming system.

Schaumglas Global Consulting GmbH is delivering plants for cellular glass gravel and boards. They install melting furnace, grinding, foaming – annealing furnace and finishing.
GLAMACO is building cellular glass plants with the (German) mold foaming process for boards. They are also supplying equipment for cellular glass gravel and granulate.

RATEX engineering delivers saws and other finishing equipment for the production of cellular glass. We took the freedom to copy some pictures of their website.

Fickert + Winterling Maschinenbau GmbH are producing roller machines for the production of cellular glass. We copied again a picture of a website. We guess that the equipment is used for the production of a glass plate, easy to grind to a fine powder for foaming later on.

The competition between different suppliers will decrease the investment cost and as consequence the sales price of cellular glass will become lower and lower. In that way, the cellular glass market will be further booming.

FM Approvals is an organization, which performs third party testing and certification. Their main focus is property loss prevention and fire and wind (storm) are two main causes of property losses. As a leader in this market, there advice is requested by many insurances and having a an FM Approved certificate is definitely a reason to get a cheaper insurance.

A flat roof is always a major risk for major losses due to storm (wind) and fire risks during maintenance. For that reason, FM developed a standard to describe the testing of a steel deck roof for fire and wind risks. Contrary to ASTM and EN, this well written standard is free of charge and the responsible author can be contacted directly for discussion.

The standard describes the fire and wind testing and put some limiting values. Large monolithic GLAPOR cellular glass boards with an adapted adhesive could become a good candidate for this certificate. They have a large strength in tension (monolithic) to resist windload and are non-combustible. The adhesive can be improved with fire retardants and fasteners can be avoided. However, a wind load up to 300 km/h is simulated to get the highest approval.

GLAPOR cellular glass boards on flat roofs are generally installed with hot melt bitumen 85/25. At 200°C, it is enough liquid to poor on concrete or to allow dipping a cellular glass block in the liquid. In this way, cellular glass boards can be very well adhered on concrete or on a steel deck roof. The joints between the boards can be filled with the liquid bitumen to guarantee a vapour tight roof. On top of that, it is cheap and as a consequence hot melt bitumen will remain in the cellular glass world for a long time. Nevertheless, it has an IARC classification, “probably cancerogenic for humans” like cited hereunder.

A- Occupational exposures to oxidized bitumens and their emissions during roofing The body of available data from cancer studies in humans points to an association between exposures to oxidized bitumens during roofing and lung cancer and tumours in the upper aerodigestive tract. In support of these findings, extracts and fume condensates of oxidized bitumens, which are used primarily in roofing applications, showed sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity in experimental animals. Taking these data together, the Working Group evaluated occupational exposures to oxidized bitumens and their emissions during roofing as “probably carcinogenic to humans” (Group 2A).

We are not surprised that the bitumen roofing world is represented by an organization Bitubel to defend its necessity for roofing. Belgium water proofing membranes based on bitumen are applied all over the world.

Hindustan Petroleum has written a nice handbook about bitumen as an introduction. It is a residue of the fractional distillation of crude petroleum. Oxidized bitumen is obtained by blowing hot air into hot bitumen (180°C). This operation increases the softening point and lowers the penetration. This type of bitumen is used for the installation of GLAPOR cellular glass boards. Bitumen 85/25  (softening point 85°C/ 2.5mm penetration) and bitumen 110/30 (softening 110°C / 3 mm penetration) are the favorite types to be used with GLAPOR cellular glass boards.

Besides the health issues, bitumen is a combustible material which becomes dangerous at 250°C. For that reason, modified flame retardant bitumen can be produced by using fire retardant magnesium hydroxide delivered for example by Europiren. Magnesium hydroxide decomposes at 300 °C-330°C close above the ignition point of bitumen.  GLAPOR cellular glass roofs installed with this type of bitumen are a candidate for a FM approval.

Another way to avoid the fire and health risks during installation is to work with “cold bitumen” or bitumen emulsion. Bitumen emulsion is a free flowing liquid at ambient temperatures. Bitumen emulsion is a stable dispersion of fine globules of bitumen in continuous water phase. Dispersion is obtained by processing bitumen and water under controlled conditions through a colloidal mill together with selected additives.

PCI PECIMOR DK is a typical example of a cold emulsion and is advised for the  installation of GLAPOR cellular glass boards like previously posted. Nevertheless, we are interested in harmless alternatives.

Most Glapor cellular glass is installed with hot bitumen 85/25, which is more or less the standard method. The bitumen is heated to above 180°C and poured on the substrate if possible.The cellular glass blocks are put into the liquid bitumen and pushed against the previous installed blocks. The liquid bitumen creeps upwards in the joints and flows slightly over the surface. This procedure guarantees a vapour tight roof free of internal condensation. Cellular glass, which cracks during this procedure, is not well produced. In case of a steel roof, the blocks are dimpled in hot bitumen bath with the bottom and two side surfaces and installed on the roof. Bitumen is indeed a nice and practical adhesive but it has some important disadvantages:

• Bitumen burns and is EUROCLASS F. It can be improved with fire retarders but these improved bitumens are rather hard to find.
• Bitumen has IARC classification 1 and has beyond any doubt cancerogenic risks, especially during installation when hot. This risk is reduced when working with cold bituminous products, like Pecimor-DK.

In case a roofing membrane is used, we need to use a flexible organic adhesive. Millennium one step green foamable adhesive is a good choice. It adheres on concrete, steel, wood and on glass. In case of uncoated GLAPOR cellular glass boards,  we have a perfect large surface for adhesion.

Millenium one step green foamable adhesive has the following advantages:

• It can be applied in all climates but not on a wet surface. In warm and moist climates, it reacts fast.
• Mixing is not needed, it is a one step adhesive
• Due to the small foaming, it absorbs small irregularities in the surface.
• It replaces fasteners through the thermal insulation
• Equipment is available to reduce labor cost to a minimum.

GLAPOR advises to use this adhesive as an alternative to hot bitumen for reason of fire safety and health.

Nobody would have believed this 10 years ago, but buying a pile of waste glass brings more added value than bringing that money to the bank. However, converting this pile of glass in windows or even bottles is not possible without proper actions of selecting and ordering this pile into different colours and compositions. But on the other hand, converting into cellular glass is a lot easier, cheaper and brings much more added value.

For a long time, most attention went to the thermal conductivity, the number which was used to compare thermal insulations. In order to improve this number, a lot of primary energy was used to manufacture polymers. On  the other side, fibers were produced and tons of binders were used to assemble these fibers into a workable structure. To improve stability, a higher density was used with even more binder. The minerals were pointing on the combustibility of polymer foams. PIR foams with a lower combustiblity were born, replacing the PUR foams while XPS and EPS were introducing flameretarders in their polystyrene. This is today a problem for the invironment and new flame retarders were developed. The polymer foam industry reacted by generating some doubt about the effect of these mineral fibers in human lungs. For a limited time, mineral fibers got a classification about a risk for cancer. This classification was downgraded to harmless later on. This battle will for sure be continued for the benefit of thermal insulation users.

From heaven, cellular glass manufactures were watching this battle and giving customers an alternative without the above disadvantages, observed with polymer foams and mineral fibers. Comfortable in their 1% niche, they all could work with rather high prices although their production method with molds was rather aged. They were happy with 70 % recycled glass, which did forget that 30% fresh raw materials were still used with a lot of primary energy. Indeed, the polymer foams were using even more energy.

And suddenly was there GLAPOR, founded and stimulated by Walter Frank, who was inpired by the success of cellular glass gravel. Walter Frank, the Steve Jobs of cellular glass installed an annealing furnace and finishing equipment behind a foaming furnace for cellular glass gravel. With the profits of the cellular glass gravel production, he started testing and improving a board production line with an absolutely free mind. He worked with four principles which are an example of the KISS-principle.

• Work only with recycled glass, which is not suited anymore for the rest of the glass industry.
• Minimize the energy consumption by choosing a recipe which allows to work with efficient combustion.
• Produce large boards, which can be cut to smaller plates later on if requested by the customer.
• Use only products without any cancerogenic classification

With these principles, he came to a cellular glass product which needs to be thicker to attain the R-value of boards produced by alternative cellular glass producers. These thicker plates are a lot cheaper to produce and the investment in equipment is only of the order of a cellular glass gravel plant. On top of that, these boards are due to their thickness a lot more stiff which is a basic request for large cellular glass boards up to 2.8 x 1.5m. These GLAPOR boards, mostly reduced to EURO-pallet dimensions are really succesfull on the market and are an improved alternative for high density mineral wool. As a side effect, classical cellular users and architects are also finding on their own the way to this product and are enjoying price and size. GLAPOR never stepped into the race of the best thermal conductivity, organized by PIR, XPS, EPS, MW, VIP and the nano-materials. Thin insulation is never strong, a major request by the building industry.

It is clear that for the future other waste minerals will be used and even larger sizes will be produced. Today, up to 7000€/ton is paid to dump mineral wool insulation.  Float glass is produced with a width of at least 5m and there is no reason why this is not possible with a cellular glass boards. Besides the possibilities in prefab building with these large boards, doubling the width halves the labor cost in a cellular glass plant.

We expect a time where a prefab cellular glass house will be free of charge, construction with guarantee included. The cellular glass producer will be paid by the ones who have to dump mineral wool thermal insulation. In fact, the cellular glass house will be the final grave where converted mineral wool will be “dumped”. All the used energy (thanks to the special recipe) will be clean electricity, produced by wind, solar and the combustion of PIR, XPS and EPS. Indeed, waste (glass) is gold … if converted into cellular glass.

It is clear that the rigidity of large monolithic cellular glass boards (2.8 x 1.5m) can be used as self supporting thermal insulation instead of insulating a brick wall. And we had some ideas like for example the catenerary house.

In Norway, a very creative solution for a cellular glass house without frame or bricks was developed based on cellular glass: the C-element. The elements are a sandwich with a cellular glass kernel and is glued under vacuum. The construction of the elements is patented. The elements are glued together and connected without any cold bridge. The whole system is shown in the website, which includes a movie explaining everything.

The system will be a lot simplified and more rigid when large cellular glass boards as produced by GLAPOR can be used as kernel. Typically, thick cellular glass is used but the structure can be further insulated on the outside with less rigid thermal insulation up to passive housing standards. The cellular glass kernel avoids any problem with humidity in the extra thermal insulation.

We are extremely interested in the evolution of this nice cellular glass project, which uses the mechanical strength and thermal insulation effect of cellular glass for facades.

Recent fire incidents, where (thermal) insulation has killed many persons has put non-combustibility as a priority. Today, reaction to fire is a big issue in Romania due to the Colectiv nightclub fire. In this club, polyurethane foam, installed as acoustic absorber, started to burn and killed 64 people.

Fire brigade officers are very reluctant to give a  permission for public buildings (especially schools) when combustible thermal insulation is used. Without that permission, the building is not ready (unfit to use) and the contractor do not receive the last part of the money, which is usually more or less his margin. As a consequence, even contractors in Romania are reluctant to use combustible thermal insulation. In case a certain rigidity is needed, they choose cellular glass, even for sloped roofs. The picture on the left is more than enough reason to avoid combustible material. It shows a lot of people in panic in a dead run due the fire in the nightclub.

To classify the building materials according to fire, the EC installed the EUROCLASS system. If a material does not contribute to fire, does not smoke and does not form droplets, which can fall and injure people, it gets EUROCLASS A1 as “reaction to fire” classification. Some materials does not need testing because they contain less than 1% organics homogeneous distributed. Monolithic uncoated cellular glass, like GLAPOR cellular glass has EUROCLASS A1 classification because it (glass) can not burn, does not smoke and does not form droplets.

However, if a large cellular glass board is manufactured by assembling small cellular glass plates with an organic adhesive and paper, the EUROCLASS A1 classification is not given and EUROCLASS E becomes possible. The following table lists all the classifications.

Generally, only EUROCLASS A1 and A2 can be considered as absolutely safe. GLAPOR cellular glass boards with dimensions 80 x 60 cm up to 150 x 280 cm are EUROCLASS A1. For rigid thermal insulation EUROCLASS A1 with these sizes, only GLAPOR Werk Mitterteich GmbH is able to deliver today.

In some cases, polymer thermal insulation manufacturers have included  HBCD in their polymer to improve the reaction to fire. “HBCD is listed for elimination, but with a specific exemption for expanded polystyrene (EPS) and extruded polystyrene (XPS) in buildings.” But this became a problem in Europe because the EC 850/2004  regulation on this is working since October 2016. It reads: “the placing on the market and use in buildings of expanded polystyrene articles and extruded polystyrene articles that contain hexabromocyclododecane as a constituent of such articles and are produced before or on 22 March 2016 shall be allowed until 22 June 2016″.

This will induce another shift to rigid mineral thermal insulation like GLAPOR cellular glass boards or a new formulation like we could find: “BASF is one of the first European manufacturers to have switched its entire portfolio of polystyrene-based insulation products for the European market to a new flame retardant, nine months ahead of the deadline laid down in the EU REACH Regulation on chemicals. Both EPS (expandable polystyrene) products (Styropor® and Neopor®) and XPS (extruded polystyrene) products (Styrodur®) will be manufactured in Europe using a polymeric flame retardant (PolyFR), which has a much better environmental profile than the HBCD (hexabromocyclo­dodecane) used in the past.” In our opinion, all these regulations and change of formulations and still a flashover of less than 2 minutes (600 m for a young talented sprinter) is ridiculous and dangerous like shown above. There is only one definitive solution: GO MINERAL.