18th Global Gypsum Conference, Exhibition and Awards
22 - 23 October 2018, Vancouver, Canada
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The 18th Global Gypsum Conference has successfully taken place in Vancouver, with nearly 300 delegates in attendance, alongside 47 exhibitors and 18 presentations. The 19th Global Gypsum Conference will take place in Kuala Lumpur on 23 - 24 October 2019.
Following a convivial Welcome Reception in the large exhibition area the previous evening, the conference itself was started by Dirk Schlemper of Inform Software, who gave a run-down of the effects of artificial intelligence on the future building industry. There are forms of 'narrow' AIs, including Alexa, Siri and chatbots; examples of machine learning such as email spam filters and chess programmes; and examples of digital operational research such as scheduling and real-time control of building materials logistics. The Alpha-Go Zero software taught itself the game, through unsupervised machine learning, playing the game millions of times and 'learning' as it went. 'When code adapts itself, who is responsible when things go wrong? The hardware manufacturer, the software vendor or the self-adjusting code?' asked Dirk. He showed a video of a free-standing humanoid robot that took wallboard from a stack of sheets, turned the sheet on its side, and using a nail-gun, fixed the gypsum wallboard to a stud-wall. Delegates were suitably impressed. Dirk suggested that when the workforce thinks about AI, the bosses think that the workers will be replaced by AI, and the workers think that the bosses will be replaced by AI. Essentially, machines are getting 'smarter,' but there is some way to go to get to economical 'General AI.' As NASA put it in 1965, "Man is the cheapest 150-pound non-linear, all-purpose computer system which can be produced by unskilled labour."
Next up was Robert Grupe, on behalf of Smithers Apex, looking at global gypsum trends to 2028. The headline number is that the total demand for gypsum (from all industries) is going to increase from 365Mt in 2018, up to 577Mt in 2028, and from $2.2bn to $3.4bn in value. Bob stated that the ongoing trends in the industry are regulatory shifts towards innovation; recycling and sustainability; regional trends; plasterboard differentiation and panelisation or prefabrication.
Robert Morrow of Innogyps next spoke about the ongoing merger/takeover of USG and/by Knauf. Robert first gave the disclaimer that he knew absolutely nothing about the internal situations of the deal, but he said that he could have an educated guess at what is going on. The deal will make Knauf the largest gypsum company in the world, larger even than China’s BNBM. There is no great overlap worldwide between the two companies, making the combination a compelling one. He suggested that the process will affect USG corporate employees most, rather than employees at the plants. Capital expenditure for the combined business may be constrained in the short to medium term. The future situation of the USG-Boral JV is unclear.
Maarten Hendriks of New West Gypsum Gypsum Recycling next asked "Where has all the gypsum gone?" NWGR has now recycled more than 6Mt of gypsum worldwide, through its nine plants. Maarten pointed out that in Canada only 40% of the gypsum that is recycled is then used to produce new building materials. In the USA, only 2% is recycled (with an additional 2% used in agriculture). In both countries, the rest is landfilled. In Europe, only 26% is recycled. He pointed out that waste typically finds the least strenuous or exacting regulatory environment and/or cheapest method of disposal. This does not necessarily coincide with reuse. Maarten pointed out that if the price of natural and FGD gypsum were to rise, then all quality concerns over recycled gypsum would be overcome, so that the quality of recycled gypsum is not an insurmountable barrier to reuse. He concluded that 30% of today's gypsum demand could in the future be supplied by recycled gypsum, saying "Never go for less than green."
Mark Flumiani next spoke on behalf of Gyptech on the three eras of gypsum use: the commodity era, the consumer product era and on the forthcoming science fiction era. Mark pointed out that the core of a gypsum board in North America must be at least 70% gypsum - and that this stipulation has not changed much over the last century. In the consumer products era a significant event occurred with the so-called Chinese drywall incident, which followed poor-quality imports, and which led to the specification of higher quality for boards, specifically that they must not contain greater than 10ppm of orthorhombic cyclooctasulfur (S8) (0.001% of an elemental sulphur marker). Mark essentially made a plea for gypsum materials to be more fully analysed, so that producers know exactly what goes into their boards. This will tend to eliminate corporate and public risk, and to reduce corporate product liability to the lowest possible levels. Mark then gazed into his crystal ball to look into the future of gypsum. Gypsum has already been discovered on the surface of Mars and USG has partnered with NASA to look into the possibility of drilling into gypsum deposits on the red planet. One reason for this may be that gypsum may be an economic source of water for human visitors to Mars, through the calcination of gypsum in order to produce water, rather than to produce stucco. The water could also be used as part of a process to make fuel on Mars, for any return journey.
Industry veteran Alfred Brosig next spoke about gypsum processing, pointing out that the calcination system has the greatest potential for saving energy in a wallboard plant. Creating a stucco with maximised consistency will allow it to accept the greatest amount of foaming, hence reducing the amount of gypsum that has to be dehydrated in the dryer. Alfred suggested that hammer or impact mills should be avoided for the comminution of natural gypsum (but should be used for FGD gypsum) on account of high wear rates. He railed against the use of dampers in gypsum processing, stating that they are a waste of energy due to their pressure drop effects: better is the use of a frequency-modulated exhaust gas fan. Alfred suggested the use of a simplified stucco stabilisation and cooling system, incorporating a double-walled ambient-air-cooled stucco conditioning bin. Finally, Alfred combined his various innovative ideas into his suggestion for the 'Alfred Brosig Natural Gypsum Calcination System,' which would produce high quality stucco at a substantial discount compared to usual production costs, while producing lower NOx and other emissions.
Professor Zhibao Li of the Chinese Academy of Sciences next spoke about the possibility of producing alpha-gypsum from waste CaCl2 produced as a by-product of the Solvay process for manufacturing sodium carbonate (Na2CO2). Professor Li gave details of a new process for the reaction of spent CaCl2 solution with aluminium sulphate for the production of clean saleable gypsum or high value alpha hemihydrate and aluminium chloride hexahydrate.
Jeff Warren finished the programme of the first day by speaking about soluble anhydrite. Soluble anhydrite (AIII) is the next stage on from hemihydrate when heat is applied. The mineralogical transformation is easily reversible when water is added, in a strongly exothermic reaction. Jeff pointed out that it is all-too-easy to calcine dihydrate past hemihydrate and into anhydrite, and the process in an industrial process will be influenced by raw minerals, temperatures, air flow, particle size, humidity, ambient conditions and the configuration of the process. “It is practically impossible to avoid making some anhydrite when calcining gypsum,” he stated. The exothermic contribution of the hydration of soluble anhydrite will have effects on board formation, including on slurry temperature, setting characteristics, water demands, stucco expansion, on setting characteristics and on weight control. There are also effects on board drying - which can have a significant financial impact. Jeff stated that to be able to control AIII, you must measure it, potentially using the Gyptech Stucco Analyser. Once it has been measured, steps may then be taken to adjust the process to minimise the production of AIII, using the process variables mentioned above.
Gala dinner and Global Gypsum Awards 2018
The Global Gypsum Awards Gala Dinner took place in the unusual surroundings of the Vancouver Aquarium. Erik Dihrkop, general manager of GEO Specialty Chemicals, gave a gracious welcome on behalf of his company, which kindly sponsored the Gala Dinner. The Global Gypsum Company of the Year Award went to the world’s largest gypsum wallboard producer, Beijing New Building Materials Public Company Limited (BNBM). Gypsum equipment/services supplier of the year was Gypsum Technologies (Gyptech). The Global Gypsum plant of the year was the San Luis Potosí plant of Panel Rey, in Mexico. The gypsum-based product of the year was the ONTOP ceiling system from Knauf, while the innovation of the year was the Jürgens Maschinenbau side-film packaging machine for gypsum plasterboards. The Outstanding Contribution to the global gypsum industry award went to USG - possibly for the last time under its current ownership. Grenzebach BSH was given a special award for ‘Technological Excellence’ for its long history and its wide range of well-received wallboard manufacturing equipment. In total four gypsum industry ‘legends’ were awarded the joint ‘Personality of the year’ award over the course of the conference, and these were Hélène Barzoukas from Saint-Gobain Gypsum, Stefan Jerrelid from Limab, Emil Kopilovich from PABCO Gypsum and Craig Robertson of National Gypsum. Following a very popular raffle including artworks created by ‘First Peoples’ of the area and tickets for a Vancouver panorama flight by float plane on the following morning, the venue for the 2019 conference was announced as Kuala Lumpur on 23-24 October 2019.
Second day
The second day of the conference started with Viktor Zerr of Gebr. Pfeiffer, who spoke about a compact gypsum calcining solution - the R4C. The components of the system are supplied pre-assembled and pre-wired, in shipping containers, to reduce erection time. The heart of the system is a grinding, drying and calcining vertical roller mill. The three mills suggested for the concept can calcine 13, 29 and 45t/hour of gypsum.
Next up was Ryan Hogan of Claudius Peters Americas, who spoke about the use of 3D laser-scanning technology for brown-field project planning. Ryan pointed out that data from different sources, including 3D models, can be merged together with laser-scanning data. The full model can be used to optimise the design of facilities, including the avoidance of 'conflicts' or problems where more than one element is supposed to be in the same space. The 3D scanning is accurate to 1mm, out to a range of at least 70m, minimising risks and eliminating 'change orders' during construction.
Nick Wright of Fernite of Sheffield next spoke on knives for gypsum wallboard. Nick stated that the best material to use for the knife is stainless steel, with other metals more likely to rust due to salts in the boards. Material build-up on the teeth, metal-to-metal contact and inaccurate tooth pitching can all be avoided through correct tooth manufacturing.
Jamil Bundalli of Kamengo (a company named after the small village in Uganda where the company’s founder originated) next pointed out the three root causes of bin plugging: poor bin geometry, compaction by the feeder and uneven discharge. The feeder can inadvertently compact the material in the bin above it - if the effective discharge opening of the bin is smaller than the bridging and/or piping dimension, you will get bin plugging. Jamil told delegates that the Kamengo feeder avoids this effect.
Luis Castano of IAC next spoke on centrifugal fans and how to maximise their performance in gypsum plant dedusting systems. Compared to axial fans, centrifugal fins can operate at lower volumes but at higher pressures. Forward-curved blades are capable of higher volumes, while backwards-curved blades are capable of producing higher pressures (but lower volumes). Radial blades are capable of handling higher dust loads, but are relatively inefficient. Luis indicated the optimised point of operation of the centrifugal fan, partly through the sensible design of ductwork.
Next Michael Mesterkemper introduced the Haver & Boecker Roto-Lock bag dosing equipment, for clean filling of bags.
Reggie Buckley next spoke on behalf of Owens Corning on a robust evaluation methodology for improved fibreglass processing. Fibreglass is used to improve mechanical and fire performance of wallboard, but it must be capable of being dosed reliably into the mix and to have uniform dispersion in the wallboard. OC decided to try to improve upon its wet-use chopped strand fibres by developing a new fibre offering. Laboratory-scale testing, and subsequent commercial-scale vibratory fibre feeder steps were used to select the best possible fibre candidates for future development. The most promising fibre was then tested by a real-world board producer, which discovered that its short-term performance was not replicated over a longer production run of more than two days, partly due to a build-up of fibre within the feeder. It was decided to use a longer testing time back in the lab, using the commercial-scale vibratory fibre feeder, over five days. This allowed the team to optimise sizing and fibre characteristics for the new product, the CS1530 wet-use chopped strand for the gypsum industry.
Wijai Homsakmongkol of Siam Cement Group Paper Packaging spoke about his company's light weight and high strength plasterboard liner, manufactured on a new efficient paper machine developed in conjunction with Japanese company Kobayashi. He said that the company has been able to reduce the basis weight of paper from 160 to 140gsm, while maintaining the same tensile strength. This has been achieved by using quality fibres, by refining the fibres (for example by increasing their 'hairiness’), using correct fibre orientation, by using modified starch to enhance strength and by using a proprietary enzyme to convert the starch. Further developments will increase the tensile strength of the paper at the same weight.
Dick Engbrecht, PhD., gave the penultimate presentation at the conference, on the evaluation of gypsum casts by digital image correlation (DIC) when exposed to temperatures of above 500°C. Dick showed that at high temperatures there are complex interactions between borax - used for stability of gypsum at high temperatures since it seems to melt, flow and heal cracks - and kaolin, which is a common minor clay constituent of natural gypsum.
The final presentation at the conference was given by Mika Lehtonen of Lahti Precision, on 'Cleantech Finland' values in dosing and weighing in gypsum dry mix plants. Mika says that his company uses injected air to fluidised materials in bins, allowing gravity to more effectively do its job, as well as applying fluidisation in hoses and dosing systems. Clean and dry air is required for fluidisation. System design means that energy-efficiency is built-in.
Farewell and conference prizes
The Farewell Reception at the end of the event - in the Constellation Room on the Wall Centre’s 34th Floor - was serenaded by the Siobhan Walsh Jazz Experience, and a number of prizes were presented. The best exhibition stand award which went jointly to Gyptech and Grenzebach. Delegates had also voted for their favourite presentations, with voting normalised to the number of attendees in each presentation. Mark Flumiani of Gyptech won third prize for his paper on the journey of gypsum from commodity product to outer space. Luis Castano of IAC was second for his paper on understanding centrifugal fans, while Jeff Warren of Gyptech won the prize for best presentation for his paper which helped delegates to understand gypsum anhydrite.
As previously announced, the 19th Global Gypsum Conference will take place in Kuala Lumpur on 23-24 October 2019.
Delegate comments on Global Gypsum 2018 in Vancouver:
- Another successful conference
- Well done!
- Overall it was excellent
- Great support from the conference staff
- “As this is my last Global Gypsum Conference, I thank Robert and his team for bringing people together from all continents.” Alfred Brosig
- Overall very informative and well organised
- Conference organisers very helpful
