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THIRD-GENERATION FOAM BLOWING AGENTS FOR FOAM INSULATION
Citation:
Howard, P., J. Runkel, AND S. Banerjee. THIRD-GENERATION FOAM BLOWING AGENTS FOR FOAM INSULATION. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/600/R-98/133 (NTIS PB99-122095), 1998.
Impact/Purpose:
information
Description:
The report gives results of a study of third-generation blowing agents for foam insulation. (NOTE: the search for third-generation foam blowing agents has led to the realization that, as the number of potential substitutes increases, new concerns, such as their potential to act as greenhouse gases and their safe use, are generated. Unfortunately, the data required to assess a substitute's potential to contribute to global warming or to form flammable mixtures in air are not available for most new chemicals under consideration.) Addressing these data needs represents two of the three phases of research performed in this project. The third phase focused on identifying blowing agent substitutes. The investigation concentrated on the development of techniques to identify and replace deficiencies that may be present in an individual substitute through the use of blowing agent azeotropic mixtures. The two components of a mixture may display a synergistic effect where the overall characteristics of the blowing agent are better than if either substance was used individually. The above concepts on blowing agent mixtures should encourage interested parties to investigate the use of azeotropes in laboratory foaming trials on insulating polyurethane foams.