Recovery of Vegetable Fibers from Licorice Processing Waste and a Case Study for Their Use in Green Building Products

Luigi Madeo, Anastasia Macario, Sebastiano Candamano and Pierantonio De Luca ()
Additional contact information
Luigi Madeo: Dipartimento di Ingegneria per l’Ambiente, Università della Calabria, I-87036 Arcavacata di Rende, CS, Italy
Anastasia Macario: Dipartimento di Ingegneria per l’Ambiente, Università della Calabria, I-87036 Arcavacata di Rende, CS, Italy
Sebastiano Candamano: Dipartimento di Ingegneria Meccanica, Energetica e Gestionale, Università della Calabria, I-87036 Arcavacata di Rende, CS, Italy
Pierantonio De Luca: Dipartimento di Ingegneria Meccanica, Energetica e Gestionale, Università della Calabria, I-87036 Arcavacata di Rende, CS, Italy

Clean Technol., 2025, vol. 7, issue 3, 1-20

Abstract: The present research is aimed at the recovery of vegetable fibers from licorice root processing waste through simple methods that do not involve the use of chemical reagents to guarantee a complete eco-sustainability approach and for their use in the production of fiber-reinforced ecomaterials. The waste was treated through several washing cycles with only water at different temperatures to identify the optimal conditions to obtain clean fibers. The clean fibers and the waste were analyzed and characterized in advance by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), microanalysis (EDS) and thermal analysis (DSC). Subsequently, both the clean fibers and the waste were used to produce fiber-reinforced plaster artifacts. The mechanical properties of the artifacts were measured as a function of % clean fibers or untreated waste. The results obtained showed that it is possible to effectively recover clean vegetable fibers from licorice waste through repeated washing cycles of 30 min with only water. By increasing the temperature, the necessary washing cycles decrease, and a good compromise is five washes at 100 °C. The yield of clean fibers compared to waste is 50%. The creation of prototypes of gypsum matrix panels, which incorporate fibers recovered from licorice processing waste through the methodology tested in this study, has also been successfully realized, representing a significant step forward towards practical applications in the field of eco-friendly construction.

Keywords: green building; ecomaterials; natural fibers; licorice; waste (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2571-8797/7/3/55/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2571-8797/7/3/55/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jcltec:v:7:y:2025:i:3:p:55-:d:1695972

Access Statistics for this article

Clean Technol. is currently edited by Ms. Shary Song

More articles in Clean Technol. from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().