Page 5 - InnoRenew CoE International Conference 2024

Development of thermal insulation materials from available

renewables for sustainable buildings

Ramunas Tupciauskas*, Andris Berzins, Gunars Pavlovichs, Martins Andzs

Latvian State Institute of Wood Chemistry, Dzerbenes 27, 1006 Riga, Latvia, Ramunas.tupciauskas@kki.lv
* Corresponding author

Due to the evident climate change a building’s eco-, energy, and hygrothermal efficiency becomes particularly
important. It is already known that the building sector in Europe accounts for 40% of energy consumption and

globally emits the same percentage of CO2. Insulating the building envelope significantly reduces the figures
contributing to energy efficiency, sustainability, and climate stabilization (Chandhran and Elavenil, 2023). Raw
materials of thermal insulation also make sense since the natural renewable resources contribute to favorable
green transition and circular bioeconomy. Moreover, they have been recognized as having low environmental
impact, less energy consumption, low cost, low density, scalability, biodegradability and good insulation
properties (Cintura et al., 2021). Since the market for thermal insulation materials still contains up to 90% of
non-biodegradable and non-renewable materials, the development of new competitive thermal insulations from
available renewables is crucial.

Based on the above-mentioned key factors, the present study aims on the development of new thermal
insulation materials from locally available and annually renewable lignocellulosic biomass like wheat straw, corn

stalk, and reed. To develop loose-fill thermal insulation materials, the raw materials were separately processed by
mechanical crushing, thermo-mechanical pulping (TMP), and steam explosion pulping (SEP). The effect of each
processing and density (30–90 kg m-3) on thermal conductivity was evaluated. Besides, properties like specific

heat capacity, water vapor diffusion, mold fungi resistance, fire resistance, volatile organic compounds, and
settlement were investigated. In spite of mass loss of up to 30% from the initial mass of raw materials the most
promising processing are both TMP and SEP providing very competitive properties of the investigated thermal
insulation materials. Based on the study results, the developed materials have a high potential to enhance
sustainability and energy efficiency of buildings by using environment-friendly renewable lignocellulosics.

Keywords: wheat straw, reed, corn stalk, bio-based thermal insulation materials, properties

Acknowledgment: The authors gratefully acknowledge receiving funding from the Latvian Council of Science,
grant number lzp-2021/1-0599.

REFERENCES

Handhran, K.S.D., Elavenil, S., 2023. A comprehensive state-of-the-art review of sustainable thermal insulation
system used in external walls for reduction in energy consumption in buildings. Int. J. Green Energy 20, 895–
913. https://doi.org/10.1080/15435075.2022.2120769

Cintura, E., Nunes, L., Esteves, B., Faria, P., 2021. Agro-industrial wastes as building insulation materials: A review
and challenges for Euro-Mediterranean countries. Ind. Crops Prod. 171, 113833. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
indcrop.2021.113833

11–12 SEPTEMBER 2024 I IZOLA, SLOVENIA 5