IPSIIS mineral foams: a new family of Insulators

IPSIIS is a French cleentech founded in October 2014 to develop and promote a breakthrough innovation in the context of energy renovation and fire protection.

This innovation is part of the circular economy approach advocated by the Paris agreements as part of the fight against global warming, which for the construction sector will be implemented in France from January 2022 as part of RE2020. .

It allows certain mineral waste (shale, limestone, aluminosilicate, etc.) to be up-cycled by environmentally friendly manufacturing an incombustible mineral insulator with refractory properties.

Origin: an environmental concern

For years, long before founding IPSIIS, Yves Le Corfec, worked in the environmental sector, first as an insurer at AGF, to evaluate the risks on soil pollution, then as a researcher and risk manager at SOLEN and at EDF.

Through his diagnoses, he was often confronted with a certain number of inert wastes, noble enough to be able to be over-cycled, through the manufacture of an eco-designed non-combustible insulating mineral foam. After two years of R&D which enabled him to demonstrate the project feasibility, he created IPSIIS (Innovative Processes, Sustainable Inspiring Insulation Solutions) in October 2014 to conduct the developments and ensure the promotion of this breakthrough innovation for manufacturers and construction professionals.

One of the major advantages of this innovation in the construction world is, beyond its up-cycle?mineral waste capacity, the possibility of greatly reduce the insulation solution energy content. Indeed, it appears that all the insulators currently in place, whether they are issues from petroleum chemistry or from minerals, require a lot of energy in their manufacturing process. If we take the glass wool example, the process starts by heating silica to 1600 ° C. Even most recent mineral insulation solutions, such as cement foams which are rather new on the market, are energy consumer through the use of clinker as one of their essential component.

In addition, as recent disasters have shown, the resistance of insulation products to fire is an essential safety issue that is not satisfied either by synthetic materials (polystyrene, polyurethane, polyisocyanurate) or by bio-based materials ( hemp, wood wool, grass, cellulose).

Only mineral wools (glass or rock) provide this non-combustible character. However, they are not easily recyclable, which in addition to their energy content makes them not very virtuous in terms of sustainable development.

Furthermore, as required by global demographic growth, as well as economic and environmental need to concentrate habitat on certain areas in order to leave some space to nature, it will be necessary to continue to build high towers. Thus, this type of contruction requier fire resistance characteristics in complement of renewable resources such as wood or other biobased materials which represent renewable resources. Only mineral materials are able to prevent us from new catastrophes like the historic fire of Chicago in 1871.

Manufacturing and implementation: simple, compact, low capital intensive & relocatable

sourcing:

Mineral powders are selected from the recycling of buildings, public works or industrial wastes.

It may be, for example, clay sludge, produced during the digging of tunnels, limestone fines from quarries, brick fines, slate, used glass wool or even silico-aluminous ashes.

In some applications which require very sharp tracing, mineral powders can be purchased from a producer. The main constraint is that the mineral powder has a particle size below 100 to 120 μm.

manufacturing process & implementation

We add to these powders cementing agents and cohesion agents, biobased, mixed in aqueous medium.

This "slurry" is then worked by an expansion machine initially manufactured for the food industry. Air is added to the material to give a "whipped cream" which can either be sprayed at low pressure by flocking, or simply deposited or even molded.

It is finally dryed at room temperature or in dryers at 40 ° C.

Depending on the intended use, it can be cut into panels and machined.

If you need perfect dimensional stability to cycle at high temperature, it will be ceramized by firing close to the final temperature of use.

IPSIIS foams'properties : the four elements

Earth (the mineral)

The matrix of the foams is entirely mineral and therefore comes from the "earth" in the broad sense.

Quarry fines or tunnel sludge can be used.

?

Air

These foams, due to their open porous structure, contain 90% air. They are good thermal and sound insulators. They tolerate frost very well; they can be used to insulate hot as well as cold and are effective at room temperature as at high temperature.

?The open porosity ensures them a perfect hygrometric regulation allowing to avoid mold. Today foams with densities varying between 150 and 400 kg / m3 are already available. Their compressive strength is between 0.3 MPa and 5 MPa.

?Developments are underway to reduce the density, to improve thermal conductivity. The objective is to reach the threshold of 0.04 mW / mK with a density of 90 kg / m3, keeping a mecanical resitance of 0,1 MPa.

?Fire

But their most impressive feature is their fire resistance! These foams have an incombustible character.

Not only do they not burn but also, unlike concrete or rock wool, they do not deconstruct at very high temperature, which makes it possible to protect the more sensitive materials to which they are leaned, for example during a tunnel fire… In addition, the raw foam still contains a fraction of bound water which gives it interesting endothermic properties which allow thermal shock absorption in a firewall.

Water

Without having been initially researched, an extremely interesting property of IPSIIS foams is their capacity to retain water, which by virtue of their open porosity will be able to replace air.

This remarkable property makes it possible to envisage many uses such as the river water regulation, essential for the environment, garden centers, or even green walls & roofs, for which test rooting tests have been performed sucessfully.

Multiple applications among different sectors

The specificity, the originality of the offer results from an operational concept of circular economy which allows a local production of insulation solutions by associating a chain of actors for regional value creation : deposit holders, waste managers, manufacturers, construction and industrial insulation professionals.

The incombustible nature of IPSIIS foams and their resistance to very high temperatures allows, beyond their insulating character, to foresee a potential use for the protection of goods and people whenever fire safety concerns are imperative.

High temperature:

Due to their resistance to high temperature, IPSIIS foams constitute a real alternative to refractory bricks with the advantage of being much lighter and of having much better thermal conductivity which could be a source of energy savings. They also constitute an alternative to refractory fibers, which are considered at high temperatures as carcinogenic.

It can therefore be applied in the insulation of industrial furnaces / incinerators / furnace wagons / Steelworks (lids .. / Fiber substitution) / Refractory heating elements / Liquid cast iron retention ...

Fire protection

Here again, the exceptional resistance to high temperatures and thermal shocks offer multiple applications whether by the sale of panels or by deposit & / or projection: Protection of technical ducts / Tunnel fire panels / Protection of electric parking lights / Fire protection electric batteries / Fire doors / Non-combustible composite panels / opening frames / moldings / fire blocks to be inserted into another insulation / Cable tray protection / Pipe insulation / Fire protection in the naval world

Building & public works

Beyond the insulating character, several characteristics of IPSIIS foams can be exploited, in particular:

their self-placing character for cavity filling (bricks / concrete blocks / prefabricated elements) / refitting / insulation of district heating pipes

and of course their non-flammable nature, particularly useful for high-rise buildings / ITE insulating panels / Insulating sandwich panels / Insulating composite block / Construction / Insulating terrace roof / Steel structure protection

or other qualities such as water retention: green walls & roofs / swimming pools copies / garden centers .. or decoration: decorative tiles / facade cladding ..

In the form of aggregates, the foam can be used for various applications, whether it involves: - replacing alluvial aggregates in certain types of concrete: - filling cavities as an insulator, - forming technosols (see wall & green roof applications) - or simply as light backfill in Public Works.

IPSIIIS: from research labs to industrialization

October 2014:

After more than two years of development which allowed him to demonstrate the feasibility of his innovation and to obtain marks of interest both from professionals and from the world of academic research, Yves Le Corfec decided to create IPSIIS and became the same year, winner of the I-Lab competition of the Ministry of Higher Education and Research with the support of the BPI ( French Public Investment Bank).

Quickly, he formed his team with Estefania del Campo Estrada, Alexandre Bordenave, both holders of a research doctorate, joined by CIFFRE PhD students. Thanks to public subsidies, it sets up an R&D program which has won several prizes.

December 2015

IPSIIS has been chosen by the Ministry of the Economy, Industry and Digital as one of the 21 CleanTech start-ups, ambassadors of FrenchTech at COP21

Since 2016

IPSIIS has met many manufacturers to identify their needs and carry out POCs from its research center in Moissy-Cramayel.

?November 2018

IPSIIS was the 70th company to receive the "Solar Impulse Efficient Solution" label from the Bertrand Picard foundation.

?This label is intended to identify 1,000 efficient solutions to accelerate the energy transition. It is deliverd by a committee of independent experts on the basis of 3 criteria:

1. Technical feasibility
2. Environmental and social impact
3. Economic interest/ profitability

June 2020

The European Commission has awarded IPSIIS a certification of excellence to reward its contribution to the circular economy within the framework of the Green Building, and to encourage investors to support its project.

November 2020

For the second year in a row IPSIIS was finalist in the Hello Tomorrow challenge in the "smart city" category.?Around 5,000 startups from around the world are competing every year.

Since January 2021

By raising funds of € 2.4 million, the company is equipping itself with the means to set up a real industrial production phase while continuing R&D.

• New industrial & business profiles have joined the company, and recruitments are underway.
• The Moissy-Cramayel research center has been upgraded, and became an actual pilot production site, allowing the production of small series in addition to R&D.
• IPSIIS technology has been selected and validated by several public-private entities within the framework of circular economy consortia intended to recover certain types of mineral waste, generated in particular during - construction of civil engineering works; - deconstruction of used glass wool; - thin concrete and bricks; - the exploitation of peat bogs; of river sediments ....
• To meet strong demand on the High Temperature and Fire protection markets, with the help of a financial partner, a new production center (4000m3 per year) is being set up in the south of the?Belgium. This plant will serve the European market and will be operational from the end of June 2021.

As regards the building and the public works sectors, which use much larger volumes,

• partnerships corresponding to one or more different applications are being discussed (or to be discussed) with companies or industrial groups.
• local production units either mobile or integrated into partners production lines using the foam in their products, will be installed with a licencing model improving environmental impacts, enhancing the local economies and multiplying production capacity.

Recognitions & Rewards