ZinCo annually acts as the title sponsor of the International Roof Planting Congress. On May 13-15, 2013, the third Congress took place in Hamburg, Germany. There, ZinCo showcased two innovative programs focused on creating new products in the improvement and environmental efficiency of modern urban spaces.
Within the framework of the congress, the results of research in the field of roof greening systems carried out jointly by ZinCo and the British University of Sheffield were presented. In 2009, the research was supported by a grant from the European Commission under the Marie Curie Academy for Industrial Partnerships in the amount of € 1.185 million. For four years, work was carried out at two test sites, in Stuttgart and Sheffield.
The result is the largest study of roof waterproofing and drainage to date, as well as improvements to soil substrates and plant species to be planted.
Through fundamental monitoring and modeling methods, solutions have been developed to improve the performance of systems:
- expanded the list of plant-resistant plants for "extensive" and "semi-intensive" roof greening;
- improved characteristics of the soil substrate (including for a very dry season);
- a model has been developed to predict the behavior of wastewater (including after a dry period);
- improved irrigation system that can reduce the load on the roofs of buildings;
- a technical solution has been developed for efficient distribution of moisture on the roof in winter.
The results of the research work will serve as an effective basis for the development of new products for roof greening systems. However, it should be emphasized that some of ZinCo's innovative developments are beginning to be introduced into production right now.
Dieter Schenck, Sales Director of ZinCo GmbH, also presented the concept of the NatureLine system at the Congress held in Gambrug, all elements of which must be completely produced from environmentally friendly materials.
The creation of components of the "pie" for green roofs from renewable sources of raw materials is a joint idea of ZinCo and Tecnaro GmbH, which since 1998 has been producing biopolymers, in particular, a special line of Arboblend.
One of the products in this series, comparable in properties to polyethylene, can be used as a component of the drainage system in the new ZinCo NatureLine.
This type of plastic is made from ethanol, which is obtained from the processing of sugar cane. The production site will be the world's largest sugar cane processing plant located in Brazil.
In his presentation on NatureLine, Dieter Schenk described in detail the current situation in the renewable raw materials market. Wheat, corn, sugarcane, oil crops, trees, algae - many of them can already be used as energy sources and raw materials for the production of, for example, biopolymers. According to the data provided by the sales director of ZinCo GmbH, theoretically 90% of all plastic today can be produced not from petroleum products, but from biomaterials (crops and marine life).
But in practice, everything looks different: in 2011, less than 1% of the total world plastic production fell on the sector that uses "green" technologies, although the annual growth rates of such production show the dynamics of 20%. While the cost of producing biopolymers is higher today, the sector has seen a steady increase in cost efficiency. In addition, prices for biomaterials are falling, while crude oil prices are still rising. Another telling fact is that the reduction of CO₂ emissions into the atmosphere during the production of bioplastics is reduced in the range from 20 to 80%.
Not only sugar cane will be used as raw materials for the production of the components of the NatureLine "pie". The protective and filtering layers of the system are planned to be made of polyoxypropionic acid (PLA). This type of bioplastic is created by the polymerization of lactic acid, which, in turn, is the product of the fermentation of corn starch and lactic acid bacteria. The advantages of PLA are strength, heat resistance, lightweight and already debugged processing mechanism.
Summarizing his presentation, Dieter Schenck noted that the production of bioplastics directly depends on the amount of agricultural land intended for production: so far, according to the Institute of Biopolymers and Biopolymer Components Hannover (IfBB), only 0.006% of all land is used for this purpose. So, materials with high environmental performance, indeed, have very broad prospects.
*** The 3rd International Roof Gardening Congress was organized by the International Roof Landscapers Association (IGRA) and the German Roof Gardeners Association (DDV). Masters of sustainable construction, experts in the field of ecology and green technologies, as well as the Federal Ministry of Transport, Construction and Urban Development of Germany, the Ministry of Urban Development and the Environment of Hamburg and the University of Hamburg HafenCity were invited to participate in the event.
Over 250 participants from 30 countries of the world discussed interesting and topical topics of the industry in three days:
- Green roofs are not just extensive landscaping;
- Green is the new black;
- principles of greening roofs: urban planning and regulation of rainwater;
- energy saving in architecture;
- interaction between nature and architecture, self-healing objects;
- landscaping of facades - structures and plants;
- environmental protection and adaptation to climate change;
- legal aspects of "green" construction, international norms and requirements.
For more details on projects carried out by Tsinko RUS (ZINCO Representative Office in Russia), see here.
