Extruded polystyrene foams have been produced with various organic and inorganic blowing agents since their discovery in the early 40's, and are widely used as thermal insulators in building and construction. Due to blowing agent regulations, foam suppliers have been looking for new polymer - blowing agent - additive formulations that maintain high performance insulation and do not compromise other performance properties required for polystyrene insulation boards: high mechanical strength, moisture management etc. In this paper, we are going to describe the innovative approaches chosen by Dow Building Solutions to offer excellent extruded polystyrene insulating foam material with environmentally acceptable blowing agents. The development of a foaming technology using carbon dioxide will be presented, followed by the insulation improvement with the use of IR-blockers. Short and long-term physical property performance of XENERGY~(TM) extruded polystyrene foam will be discussed.
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