Thermal insulation improvement in construction materials by adding spent coffee grounds: An experimental and simulation study

Abstract

Improving thermal insulation of buildings envelopes can reduce their energy consumption and related CO2 emissions considerably. Searching for new and innovative insulation materials is therefore a key challenge. This paper presents an experimental study to show the effect of adding spent coffee grounds (SCGs) on thermal properties of plaster composite. The obtained results using the box method show a significant decrease of thermal conductivity along with an increase of the coffee ground content, indicating the possible usage of the resulting material as efficient insulation in buildings. It is found that the thermal conductivity of the resulting building material can be decreased from 0.5 to 0.31 W/m.K by adding 6 wt% of CGs to the initial material. To illustrate energetically and environmentally the benefit of using the proposed material, annual simulations were carried out for a typical Moroccan house located in Marrakech. The results indicated that up to 20% of the cooling and heating loads of the building can be reduced if the proposed material substitutes the conventional one. From an environmental point of view, the utilization of the proposed material can reduce up to 1500 kg CO2, annually for the studied case.