Layfield Geosynthetics was pleased to attend and present a technical paper at the 13th International Conference on Geosynthetics, held September 13–17, 2026, in Montréal, Canada. 13 ICG brings together geosynthetics professionals worldwide to share research, innovations, and practical industry experience. Below, you will find a quick summary and a link to download the full Technical Paper.
Development of a New Higher Performance Bi-Modal HDPE Geomembrane Presented by Brian Fraser, Layfield Geosynthetics
This paper presents the development of a new bi-modal HDPE geomembrane designed for containment applications involving elevated temperatures and aggressive chemicals. The development process spanned more than five years and included extensive production trials, laboratory testing, and third-party validation. Testing results demonstrated that compared with conventional unimodal HDPE geomembranes, the bi-modal material exhibited improved antioxidant retention, chemical resistance, tensile strength at elevated temperatures, and resistance to stress cracking. Branded as HeatGard®, this geomembrane has since been used in major mining and oil and gas containment projects, including BHP’s EP6 and EP7 projects at Olympic Dam in South Australia.