Abstract
Polyurethane foam (PUF) widely applies to cryogenic facilities as thermal insulation material, and fron HCFC-141b is presently used as the foaming agent of PUF. Production of HCFC-141b is, however, scheduled to terminate at the end of year 2003 because of its ozone depleting potential and global warming potential. Then, PUF using water, i. e. carbon dioxide generated by chemical reaction is utilized as the blowing gas, have been developed.
PUF consist of the small cells with blowing gas, and minimizing the cell diameter is the key technology to get lower thermal conductivity. Several combinations of reaction agents have been tried to get smaller cell. Mechanical⁄physical properties, creep characteristics and actual thermal insulation performance also have been confirmed. Then we have successfully developed non-fron PUF that can be applied to the actual LNG facilities.
