Shoaib, Qasim; Mukherjee, Vaidurya; Marmaridou, Vasiliki; Sereda, Aleksei; Satarawala, Peterasp; Carrillo Baeza, Jose Gonzalo; Bele, Eral; (2025) Manufacturing of lightweight insulation foams from renewable henequen fibres. Presented at: 8th International Conference on Multifunctional, Hybrid and Nanomaterials, Montpellier, France.

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Abstract

The development of sustainable insulation materials is crucial for reducing the carbon emissions of the building industry. In this work, we present a new, simple and scalable manufacturing process for lightweight fibrous networks from lignocellulosic henequen fibres. Mechanical fibrillation, a natural binder, and a simple foaming process based on mechanical agitation resulted in stable and highly porous structures with fibres interconnected through chemical and mechanical cross-linking. An optimisation process was conducted to determine the role of mechanical fibrillation, foam constituents and process parameters on the physical, thermal, and mechanical properties of the fibrous networks. The optimised materials achieved a thermal conductivity of 0.040 W/mK, apparent density of 11-21 kg/m3 and compressive strength of 20-60 kPa, which provides comparable properties to commercial insulation materials and noteworthy improvements to current bio-based alternatives. Finally, a life cycle assessment of the manufacturing process indicated that the developed insulation materials reduce the toxicity impacts by 85% compared to alternative insulation foams, specifically rigid polyurethanes and other cellulosic foams.

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