Agricultural Crop Rresidues and Polystyrene Waste for the Production Thermal Insulators

Abstract

Abstract Renewable building materials that are produced from agricultural and industrial waste have become more demanded in engineering applications for their sustainability and have little harm to the environment. They are also considered thermal insulators that reduce energy consumption, with their great importance in producing valuable materials from harmful waste. In this research, there are four types of locally available renewable materials (rice husk, sawdust, rice husk powder, and polystyrene waste). It is used to produce thermal insulators with compressive strength (2.08 - 5.992 MPa). The thermal conductivity of the sample ranges between 1012-1433 kg/m3 and 0.118-0.362 W/m.K, respectively. The lowest thermal conductivity is. 0.118 W/mK was observed for the composite of rice husk powder with cement and sand, and the density was 1332 kg/m3. The lowest water absorption (15%) was found in the polystyrene sample. The tested samples showed potential to become thermal insulators and can be used in place of traditional materials in both internal and external building insulation applications. Extensive cement-based compounds some of which are summarized in Table 1 and compared with the results of this study