Insulating Building Components Made from a Mixture of Waste and Vegetal Materials: Thermal Characterization of Nine New Products

Maria La Gennusa, Concettina Marino, Antonino Nucara, Maria Francesca Panzera and Matilde Pietrafesa
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Maria La Gennusa: Department of Engineering, University of Palermo, Viale delle Scienze, Ed. 8, 90128 Palermo, Italy
Concettina Marino: Department of Civil, Energy, Environmental and Material Engineering (DICEAM), “Mediterranea” University of Reggio Calabria, Via Graziella, Loc. Feo Di Vito, 89122 Reggio Calabria, Italy
Antonino Nucara: Department of Civil, Energy, Environmental and Material Engineering (DICEAM), “Mediterranea” University of Reggio Calabria, Via Graziella, Loc. Feo Di Vito, 89122 Reggio Calabria, Italy
Maria Francesca Panzera: Department of Civil, Energy, Environmental and Material Engineering (DICEAM), “Mediterranea” University of Reggio Calabria, Via Graziella, Loc. Feo Di Vito, 89122 Reggio Calabria, Italy
Matilde Pietrafesa: Department of Civil, Energy, Environmental and Material Engineering (DICEAM), “Mediterranea” University of Reggio Calabria, Via Graziella, Loc. Feo Di Vito, 89122 Reggio Calabria, Italy

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 24, 1-17

Abstract: Nowadays, energy efficiency and sustainability are the fulcra of building policies. These policies promote the use of new technologies and materials that can reduce the primary energy involved and the environmental costs of construction, guarantying at the same time a high level of comfort for the building’s occupants. Synergy between previous construction techniques and the use of new materials should be pursued by employing materials with a low environmental impact and optimal thermal insulation properties. Within this framework, new materials derived from the agriculture sector, and waste or recycling products from the industrial/agricultural sectors have been studied. The aim of this paper is to contribute to this field by analysing the insulation properties of new environmentally friendly materials composited from waste or vegetal products for their applications within the construction sector. Measurements of the thermal conductivity of nine different samples are carried out, obtaining promising results suggesting that these products can be used as feasible alternatives to the materials traditionally used for construction and insulation. However, further analyses are certainly recommended, to assess the samples’ structural properties and the influence of pre-treatments on the samples.

Keywords: thermal conductivity measurements; building envelope sustainability; waste material; vegetal material; environmentally friendly composites (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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