Abstract
The raw materials used to manufacture thermal insulation in buildings consume a large amount of energy and are not generally biodegradable, which means it is necessary to increase the use of renewable, eco-friendly resources such as plant fibers in order to reduce the environmental problems this generates. The wood adhesives developed by the petrochemical industry offer excellent performance and are affordable. However, their use has an expiry date and in the future they will be rejected due to the environmental and health problems they can cause. The objective of this work was to develop a new eco-friendly biocomposite that could be used for thermal insulation in buildings. Boards were manufactured from giant reed particles with a particle size of 2 to 4 mm, using 5 and 10% by weight of citric acid as a natural binder. Experiments were then carried out to investigate the effect of board density on mechanical, physical, and thermal properties. A new type of composite was obtained with a thermal conductivity of 0.081–0.093 W/m K, which makes it suitable as an insulating material. The boards with a density of 850 kg/m3 had a modulus of rupture (MOR) of 12.5 N/mm2, a modulus of elasticity (MOE) of 2440 N/mm2, and an internal bonding strength (IB) of 0.61 N/mm2, and they could be used as insulation panels for divisions and enclosures in buildings.
Highlights
As modulus of rupture (MOR), modulus of elasticity (MOE), internal bonding strength (IB), and thickness swelling (TS) depend on the % of citric acid, it is possible to produce good insulating panels with good physical and mechanical properties with low-density boards by increasing the % of citric acid used to produce the boards, which needs to be tested
Based on the mechanical and thermal properties obtained in this work, it can be stated that all the particleboards could be used as insulating material
It can be concluded from the results obtained that the boards with 10% by weight of citric acid may offer better performance against water
Summary
Buildings are responsible for 30% of the world’s energy consumption and for 28% of CO2 emissions.A passive way of saving energy is by taking action to improve the thermal enclosure of buildings.In recent times, there are technical materials on the market that offer good insulating properties, including those of plastic origin (expanded polystyrene, extruded polystyrene, polyurethane foam, etc.) and those of mineral origin (glass fiber, rock wool, vermiculite, perlite, etc.), but their production consumes a large amount of energy and they are not biodegradable.Due to the environmental problems deriving from their manufacture, the use of renewable and eco-friendly resources is growing, and this has led to a considerable increase in research works focusing on the use of plant fibers for developing new thermal insulation products and the use of natural adhesives.A large amount of plant waste is currently burned, shredded, buried, or taken to landfill sites.the use of these plant fibers as a natural and renewable element in insulating materials would have significant environmental and economic benefits, because the product would fix CO2 throughout the building’s lifetime and would be completely biodegradable at the end of its useful. A passive way of saving energy is by taking action to improve the thermal enclosure of buildings. Due to the environmental problems deriving from their manufacture, the use of renewable and eco-friendly resources is growing, and this has led to a considerable increase in research works focusing on the use of plant fibers for developing new thermal insulation products and the use of natural adhesives. The use of these plant fibers as a natural and renewable element in insulating materials would have significant environmental and economic benefits, because the product would fix CO2 throughout the building’s lifetime and would be completely biodegradable at the end of its useful
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