Italy is one of the largest markets for the BASF Group worldwide and the Pontecchio Marconi site in Bologna is considered to be the ‘flagship’ of the Italian BASF sites.
In the past, this facility has had cases of small wicking fires on pipelines carrying thermal oil. The installed Mineral Wool would absorb thermal oil and would auto-ignite causing small fires. After complaints about the issues with Mineral Wool, BASF decided to re-insulate the pipelines and transmission of the thermal oil boiler with FOAMGLAS® Insulation.
When the company took down the Mineral Wool, it found that the fibers retained small amounts of oil from leakages, creating the environment that was responsible for auto-igniting wicking fires.
The Mineral Wool was replaced by a FOAMGLAS ONE™ double-layer insulation system, equipped with a PC® 700K reinforcement coating.
The pipelines that ran through underground tunnels were also re-insulated, because the Mineral Wool had been subjected to infiltration of rainwater and the thermal conductivity values had increased tremendously. The old insulation was removed and all the pipes were re-insulated with Pittsburgh Corning’s FOAMGLAS TEROSTAT system.
The general conclusion was that thanks to FOAMGLAS Insulation, the heat transmission installations could finally operate at their maximum potential.