Session: 03-02: Innovative Building Material and Technologies

Paper Number: 156365

156365 - Novel New Thermal Insulation and Sound Absorption Materials Derived From Agro/medical Wastes 

Abstract: 

The international trend nowadays is to use natural insulating materials in buildings to be safe for human beings and to lower the environmental impact.  Examples include Agro wastes extracted from palm tree surface fibers and leaves, pineapple leaves, agave fibers, Apple of Sodom fibers, wheat straw fibers, Eucalyptus Globulus leaves, and sunflower and watermelon seeds.  Medical protective equipment such as facemasks and gowns are another type of waste.  Hybrid composite materials of different agro wastes were developed using cornstarch and wood adhesive binders.  Loose and bound facemasks are also produced using wood adhesive as a binder. Boards developed from such agro and medical waste and their hybrid composites were prepared on a laboratory scale.  Thermal conductivity coefficients were measured for a temperature range of 20^oC to 80^oC for a board sample of size 30 ´ 30 ´H cm³, where H is the thickness of the sample board and obtained in the range of 0.045 to lower than 0.07 W/m K.  Sound absorption coefficient were measured using impedance tube with inside inner diameters of 10 cm and 3 cm to cover a wide range of frequencies up to 6000 Hz.  The results show that the sound absorption coefficient is above 0.5 and for some sample boards it reached 0.8. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA and DTGA) are also obtained for the agro and medical wastes showing that they are thermally stable up to about 220^oC.  The differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) analysis was also reported for them and showed the important decomposition points. Micrographs of the agro and medical waste were conducted using the scanning electron microscope (SEM) to show their structures. Fourier transformation infrared (FT-IR) analyses are carried out for some of the agro materials and the discarded facemasks to show the stretching wavenumbers, which present different chemical functional groups. Three binding moment tests for bound specimens were made showing an increase in both flexural stress and flexural modulus of the hybrid specimens.  Using these hybrid, agro, renewable, and environmentally friendly materials in buildings will share in energy savings when used as thermal insulation and sound absorption materials rather than synthetic and petrochemical ones.  In addition to that, using discarded facemasks as new thermal insulation and sound absorption material will solve a huge environmental problem by getting rid of such wastes, which will lower the environmental impact. These results are promising about using such agro/medical waste as new thermal insulation and sound-absorbing materials for buildings replacing the synthetic or petrochemical insulation materials for green buildings

Presenting Author: Mohamed Ali King Saud University

Presenting Author Biography: Mohamed E. Ali is a professor of mechanical engineering at King Saud University, Saudi Arabia. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1988. His research interests include natural and forced convection heat transfer, nanofluid heat transfer, thermal natural insulation materials, and recycling waste materials. He has published about 160 articles in well-recognized journals and conference proceedings. He has written a chapter on Free Convection Heat Transfer from Different Objects. He has led a research group for nine years. He is currently on the editorial boards of three journals. He was awarded the Distinguished Research and Publication Award for 2010, 2011, 2014, and 2017 by the College of Engineering at King Saud University. He served as a plenary, and keynote, and invited speakers at national and international conferences. He registered in REPRISE (the Register of Scientific Experts set up at the MIUR) for Fundamental Research and Applied Research, Roma, Italy. He is a referee for most international journals in his field. His new invention of natural insulating material has been recognized by the Asia Research News 2012 and by Physics Today Magazine, July 2014 Daily edition, Enterprise. This invention was awarded a gold medal at the British Invention Show in 2011 and the International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva in 2012. It was also awarded the TechConnect Innovation Award at the World Innovation Summit & Showcase, in 2014, in Washington, DC., USA.