Thermal Characterization of Recycled Materials for Building Insulation

Arnas Majumder,Marco Dell’Isola,Antonio Pacitto,Laura Canale,Andrea Frattolillo,Costantino Carlo Mastino

doi:10.3390/en14123564

Arnas Majumder, Marco Dell’Isola + Show 4 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/en14123564

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Abstract

The building sector is known to have a significant environmental impact, considering that it is the largest contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions of around 36% and is also responsible for about 40% of global energy consumption. Of this, about 50% takes place during the building operational phase, while around 10–20% is consumed in materials manufacturing, transport and building construction, maintenance, and demolition. Increasing the necessity of reducing the environmental impact of buildings has led to enhancing not only the thermal performances of building materials, but also the environmental sustainability of their production chains and waste prevention. As a consequence, novel thermo-insulating building materials or products have been developed by using both locally produced natural and waste/recycled materials that are able to provide good thermal performances while also having a lower environmental impact. In this context, the aim of this work is to provide a detailed analysis for the thermal characterization of recycled materials for building insulation. To this end, the thermal behavior of different materials representing industrial residual or wastes collected or recycled using Sardinian zero-km locally available raw materials was investigated, namely: (1) plasters with recycled materials; (2) plasters with natural fibers; and (3) building insulation materials with natural fibers. Results indicate that the investigated materials were able to improve not only the energy performances but also the environmental comfort in both new and in existing buildings. In particular, plasters and mortars with recycled materials and with natural fibers showed, respectively, values of thermal conductivity (at 20 °C) lower than 0.475 and 0.272 W/(m⋅K), while that of building materials with natural fibers was always lower than 0.162 W/(m⋅K) with lower values for compounds with recycled materials (0.107 W/(m⋅K)). Further developments are underway to analyze the mechanical properties of these materials.

Highlights

The use of sheep wool inside lime putty allows for a decrease in thermal conductivity from 46% to
It should be noted that these reductions were obtained with only 3–4% of sheep wool and thistle fiber in the total mixture when compared to 13% of fibers used by Valenza et al [25]
The authors report the results of an experimental investigation on innovative materials characterized by the use of locally produced natural and waste/recycled products that are able to provide good thermal performances while having a lower environmental impact

Summary

Introduction

In the past few years, in both developed and developing countries, there is growing attention to the concepts of sustainability and energy-saving This constant and increasing awareness is due to the fact that several issues like global warming, natural resources depletion, deforestation, and ozone layer depletion are threatening the livability and existence of the majority of species on earth [1,2]. In light of these vulnerabilities, it is quite clear that to preserve the global environment and the planet itself, crucial urgent interventions are needed.

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