Water Heaters and Solar Energy Systems

Kobe Polyurethane Insulation Solutions for Boilers and Solar Energy Systems Energy, defined as the capacity to do work, holds significant importance in industry, buildings, and many aspects of our daily lives today. With each passing day, developed and developing countries require more energy as their populations grow. The main types of energy can be listed as chemical energy, thermal energy, electrical energy, and mechanical energy. Energy sources used to obtain energy are classified as renewable and non-renewable resources. Fossil fuels create non-renewable energy sources whose negative environmental impacts must be minimized. Renewable energy sources are gaining importance in meeting energy needs and ensuring sustainability. Turkey possesses many renewable energy sources due to its geographic location. Solar energy is the energy source with the highest potential among these renewable sources. Heat, one type of energy, transfers from high-temperature environments to low-temperature environments. For this reason, buildings experience energy losses in winter and unwanted energy gains in summer. Other areas where heat losses occur in winter and heat gains in summer are the facilities through which energy is transported. The process of limiting heat loss and gain in buildings and facilities is called "thermal insulation." Technically, thermal insulation is applied to reduce heat transfer between two environments at different temperatures. Thermal insulation applications provide efficiency in the use of energy resources while reducing the negative effects caused by fossil fuels through decreased consumption. A large portion of energy used in buildings is consumed for heating and cooling purposes. Obtaining hot water leads heating applications. Boiler systems, which have wide applications, are systems in which water is heated using thermal energy obtained from different energy sources and stored according to usage needs. Furthermore, with the increasing shift toward renewable energy sources today, solar energy systems installed on building roofs are very widely used, particularly for obtaining hot water. Hot water obtained in solar energy systems is stored in tanks. During storage of heated water in boiler and solar energy system tanks, heat insulation prevents heat loss and enables efficient energy use. Since the Second World War, polymeric foams have become a very important part of the polymer industry and have affected nearly every aspect of our daily lives. The industry has grown rapidly due to the beneficial properties of polymeric foam such as its lightness, sound absorption properties, and positive role in material savings, and it is widely used in protective packaging, thermal insulation, and seating cushioning. Polymeric foams are good options for many applications. Polyurethanes—one of the important polymeric foam materials formed as a result of the reaction between an isocyanate with -NCO ends and a polyol with -OH ends. Their most important advantages are high mechanical strength, strong adhesion properties, and most importantly, easy processability. One example of widely used polyurethane foams is rigid polyurethane, one of the common applications of which is use for insulation purposes. With their closed-cell structure, low density, low thermal conductivity, and high pressure resistance properties, rigid polyurethanes stand out as good insulation material. The greatest advantage of rigid polyurethane foams compared to other insulation products is their low thermal conductivity coefficient. Kobe Polyurethane is a Polyurethane System House with state-of-the-art technology, responding to customer needs with its innovative perspective through shoe systems, flexible systems, rigid systems, C.A.S.E systems, saturated polyester resins, and MDI prepolymer product groups. In the rigid polyurethane field, we offer products in spray, shutter, panel, and decoration applications. For boiler insulation and tank insulation in solar energy systems, we offer two different rigid polyurethane foam products. KOBEPOL KD-3032 containing a physical blowing agent and KOBEPOL KD-3030 containing a water-based CO2 blowing agent offer customers advantages in the amount of raw materials used through their low free densities, while standing out for boiler and solar energy system insulation with their strong adhesion to metals, high closed-cell structure, and dimensional stability. In particular, insulation materials are exposed to temperature changes depending on the environmental conditions in which they are located after application. For this reason, dimensional stability is an important property of insulation materials. During application, the products fill the mold to which they are applied with their high flowability, making them easy to process. Furthermore, these properties provide great convenience to customers for product application. Technical properties of the products are given in Table 1. KOBEPOL KD-3032 AND KOBEPOL KD-3030 have high dimensional stability. This ensures that after application, the products show no dimensional change depending on use and environmental conditions. Results of dimensional stability testing for the products are provided in Figure 4 and Figure 5.   References: 1. (Polymeric foams: mechanisms and materials / S.T. Lee, N.S. Ramesh.) 2. (Chemistry and Technology of Polyols for Polyurethanes / Mihail Ionescu) 3. (M. Szycher, Szycher's Handbook of Polyurethanes) 4. (www.izoder.org) 5. (www.emo.org.tr) 6. (www1.mmo.org.tr)   Emre Temiztürk R&D Engineer Kobe Polyurethane