ARTIFICIAL VOLCANO SAVES BILLIONS

ENERGY EFFICIENCY: 40% of all the energy consumed in Europe and North America is used in buildings, either for heating and lighting in the winter or for air conditioning and cooling in the summer. Energy which is mainly generated from fossil fuels such as coal, oil or gas. Forms of energy which everyone knows will be exhausted one day, and now cost increasingly more to extract. Meanwhile, there is much to gain each time buildings are made more energy efficient. If all houses were optimally insulated, the 40% figure could be halved to 20%.

Group chief executive Jakob Sørensen in front of the Rockwool research centre near Copenhagen. The research centre is itself a study in insulation. The outer walls are lined with visible stone wool batts which keep cool in summer, and retain the heat in winter. In all the ceilings, walls and floors, Rockwool has been used for sound insulation, while Rockfon acoustic sheets regulate the acoustics inside the rooms. The 4,000 m2 building uses 60% less energy for heating than a conventional office building. The cost of cooling is as little as EUR 30 annually.

These are the hard facts on which the Danish Rockwool Group bases its business. Rockwool is the epitome of stone wool insulation material, which in addition to retaining heat in the winter and keeping heat out in the summer, also helps to fireproof and sound-insulate buildings.

Through the company’s comprehensive research into stone wool, the material has become an integrated part of the building process, where more and more Rockwool products are becoming building materials in their own right.

Fire-proof Pentagon

“Rockwool has a number of qualities which jointly outperform other insulation materials,” says group chief executive Jakob Sørensen of Rockwool Group. “First and foremost, the fire-proofing properties of Rockwool are better than the two other types of insulation material. Plastic foam is made from combustible material, and glass wool can stand about 600°C, whereas Rockwool can resist more than 1,000°C. When it comes to fire safety, Rockwool is superior to these other insulation materials.” Currently however, it is the energy saving properties of Rockwool that generate revenues. The fire protection value of Rockwool is often something which is first recognised after an accident. One example is the Pentagon, home to the US Ministry of Defence, which was insulated with plastic foam prior to 9/11. Today the rebuilt Pentagon is insulated with fire-proof Roxul, the name of the Rockwool Group’s product in North America.

When buildings are under construction or refurbishment in Europe, the proportion of insulation used is currently about 1/3 respectively of glass wool, stone wool and foam, with stone wool showing clear progress.

“That is not only due to stone wool’s fire-proof quality, but also its technical qualities,” says Jakob Sørensen. “Rockwool keeps its shape well, which has great importance on building sites. The Rockwool Group is constantly conducting research into new and improved products, for instance on fibre orientation in the stone wool which helps keep the products stiff and durable.

Savings

“Technologically we must constantly keep abreast of requirements and developments in construction,” says Sørensen. “And that means being proactive, not reactive. We have for example created a biodegradable stone wool whose fibres decompose if they enter the human organism. Another example is stone wool batts which are com-

pressed during transport, but return to their original shape during construction.” “These are excellent technical refinements, but the fundamental issue is that proper insulation is a necessity if we are going to conserve our known energy resources. That applies both to summer and winter. In Europe alone, more than EUR 270 bn disappears into the air simply because modern, effective insulation is not used for building and refurbishment. That is more than EUR 600 per capita. Not to mention the extra 400 million tons of CO2 which Europe adds to the atmosphere. It could all be saved by careful thinking,” says Jakob Sørensen.

http://www.rockwool.com

The Group. In 2005, the Rockwool Group employed 7,500 people in 33 countries throughout the world, and generated around EUR 1.35 bn. The stone wool products are made at 22 factories in Europe, North America and Asia.

Erupting volcano
The most energy intensive part of the production process of Rockwool is the melting of the stone which takes place at 1,500°C – comparable to an erupting volcano. The stone is converted into lava, and spun into fibres while the material is fluid. Nonetheless, during its service life Rockwool insulation typically helps to save 128 times the amount of energy used to produce it.

Sound insulation
Rockwool not only insulates against heat and cold, but also functions as sound insulation. The Rockfon subsidiary is among Eu-rope’s largest companies producing acoustic ceiling plates, which are made of painted stone wool and cut to size. The ceiling plates are frequently used in open plan offices, institutional buildings, schools and factories.