Gypsum industry news

US: The Gypsum Association (GA) has released a revised and updated environmental product declaration (EPD) for 5/8” (1.5875cm) type X North American gypsum boards. Following the standards set in the association’s recently revised product category rules (PCR) for North American gypsum panel products, the EPD provides environmental performance information addressing energy consumption, water consumption, global warming, waste, air emissions and other metrics related to production.

“The Gypsum Association has an ongoing commitment to environmental stewardship. The development and release of this new ISO 21930 compliant, Type III, cradle-to-shipping gate EPD, demonstrates our member companies’ efforts to transparently report environmental impacts as a means of contributing to sustainable design and construction,” said Steve Meima, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Association, executive director of the GA.

Type X gypsum board is commonly installed in commercial, institutional and multifamily/mixed-use facilities. Where fire resistance ratings are required, type X gypsum board is typically specified. The GA has also produced an EPD for glass mat gypsum panel products that will be updated in 2021 under the new PCR.

South Africa: Waster water specialist Talbot is working with a coal producer in the Highveld region to remove gypsum generated as a by-product of its mine water purification process.

As part of a pilot project conducted in March 2020, a hydraulic filter press was used to dewater the solids, dry and press them into briquette form for transportation to end-use customers. The remaining filtrate was directed to an evaporation dam before returning to site processes via a blend line. Talbot says it reduced the waste solids from 84 - 2900mg/l and demonstrated that the technology would extract gypsum at a rate of 100kg/hr on a full-scale site operation. Previously the company has used this method on behalf of a South African platinum producer where the recovery of precious metals from a wastewater stream using the same technology.

US: Johns Manville’s (JM) filtration products plant in Richland, Mississippi started production of nonwoven filtration media for use in face masks in April 2020. JM’s Engineered Products business decided to build on its existing capabilities and help meet market demand due to shortages in the US and Europe in relation to the coronavirus pandemic.

“Johns Manville is in a unique position to serve a market that is fulfilling a great need across the world,” said Mary Rhinehart, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of JM. “Our high-performance nonwoven material is designed to provide high levels of filtration for various types of face masks. We are proud of our teams in Richland and throughout JM for finding new ways to support the communities and people who are on the front lines of this global crisis.”

JM says its media meets or exceeds Level 1 BFE 95% (Bacterial Filtration Efficiency) and VFE (Viral Filtration Efficiency) requirements. These results were verified by a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) registered laboratory.

France: Saint-Gobain’s sales in the first quarter of 2020 fell by 9.8% year-on-year, to Euro9.36bn from Euro10.4bn. Sales fell in all regions except the Americas, where they rose by 4.8% to Euro1.37bn from Euro1.31bn. The company said that coronavirus decreased demand in Asian and the Pacific in February 2020 and Southern Europe, the Middle East and Africa in March 2020. Northern European sales were only affected in the UK in the last week of March 2020. The company predicted that demand would increase globally in the second quarter of 2020 given that construction has been deemed an essential industry in most countries.

Spain: France-based Saint-Gobain subsidiary Saint-Gobain Placo has donated plastic linings produced at its Quinto de Ebro laminated gypsum wallboard plant in Zaragoza to use in the production of personal protective equipment for medical professionals caring for coronavirus patients and those vulnerable to the virus. These include home-helpers who attend 250 elderly people in the Ribera Baja del Ebro region.

On 23 April 2020 Spain’s confirmed coronavirus case count was 213,024, with 22,157 deaths.