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OCTOBER 2018 | 11 Insulation PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY TECH-CRETE PROCESSORS LTD.; CANADIAN URETHANE FOAM CONTRACTORS ASSOCIATION Advanced spray foam and new market opportunities for the insulation sector by ROBIN BRUNET A s any product manufacturer will attest, good insulation doesn't just make a building comfortable, it's a method of achieving increasingly ambitious R-values and energy effi- ciency, acoustic integrity, and sustainability. In short, insulation is expected to do more than ever before, and manufacturers are constantly tweaking and refining their products. But as far as Andrew Cole, executive director of the Canadian Urethane Foam Contractors Association (CUFCA) is concerned, August of 2018 represented a huge change in the Canadian landscape of home construc- tion energy efficiency. That's because the fourth generation of liquid blowing agents for spray foam were introduced, effectively putting to rest critics' long-standing argu- ment that such agents have a damaging impact on the environment despite their inherently efficient performance as an insulator. Spray-applied foam insulation, which has been in use since the 1940s, has the ability to make buildings 20 to 40 percent more energy-efficient than traditional insulation materials such a fibreglass or mineral wool. Blowing agents are the gasses that expand the foam to its rigid shape, and those tiny bubbles of gas act as insulators. While the so-called global warm- ing potential (GWP) of HFC blowing agents was calculated to be as high as 1,430, the GWP of the new HFO blowing agents is between six and 15, "and this makes the new agents a game changer," says Cole. According to Honeywell, which is one of the sup- pliers of the latest blowing agents, the compound of the fourth generation products will increase the cost of an XPS panel by approximately 10 to 15 percent, but it will also increase its energy performance from 10 to 15 percent at the same time. Also, spray foam blown with HFCs could only be installed in layers of two inches to avoid a fire haz- ard; but the new HFO blowing agents can install foam as thick as 6.5 inches in one pass, thus substantially saving time (for the record, HFO-based spray foam has an R-value of 6.3 per inch). Demilec Inc., which is a partner in the devel- opment of fourth generation blowing agents with CUFCA, has made available Heatlok Soya HFO in Canada, part of the Heatlok line of products incorpo- rating recycled plastics and renewable oils to create high-performing, closed cell spray foam insulations. Heatlok is specifically designed to exceed future sustainability mandates by giving builders the ability to gain up to 10 LEED points, and Heatlok Soya HFO is Demilec's first product to leverage an ultra-low global warming potential blowing agent. This agent was made possible via Honeywell's Solstice Liquid Blowing Agent (LBA) technology, which has a GWP of 1 – 99.9 percent lower than traditional blowing agents, and combines an R-value of 7.5 with a 6.5 inch lift to achieve an R-49 in a single pass. "We're hoping that the fourth generation of blow- ing agents will enable spray foams to be used in markets where environmental impact is a concern, meaning any LEED, net zero, or Passive House under- takings," says Cole. "Yes, we're fully aware that we're still talking about foam plastic insulators, but the reality is that if you want high R-values – which is the keystone of efficient building design – then our prod- uct has to be considered. The bottom line is you'll never achieve advanced energy efficiency without us." Thermal Waves Cutting to fit insulated roof panels. Application of Heatlok Soya HFO.

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