Polystyrene foam boards (PS) are the most common insulation material, used in more than 90% of all thermal insulation composite systems (TICS). There have been hardly any bio-based alternatives, as they are associated with manageability and price issues. The Fraunhofer LBF’s project developed a competitive, bio-based hybrid material for PS boards which are also price-competitive — a pioneering achievement.
These use residual and waste materials such as cork and corncobs, waterborne resins based on lignin, and mineral fillers as flame retardants. To manufacture the panels, the porous particles of renewable raw materials are coated with a bio-based duromer, that includes a mineral flame retardant, and are then pressed. The benefit: This is not a new manufacturing process. An existing, marketable principle can be used without a great deal of effort.
The resulting boards behave in fires in the same way as the latest-generation polystyrene foam hybrid materials. Component densities of 120 kg/m³ and thermal conductivities of 40 mW/m K have been achieved. Its open-pored structure provides control of water vapor diffusion. Applications tests performed by DAW, its industrial partner, have shown that OrganoPor can be easily used in TICSs.
OrganoPor is particularly economical to produce, due to the structural and processing parallels to polystyrene foam hybrid materials. An additional benefit is the availability of raw materials. OrganoPor has a great opportunity to establish itself as an ecological alternative in the insulation material market.
The German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) supported the “Insulation Materials for Building Insulation from Biogenic Residues with Spherical, Porous Structure and Fire-Retardant Bioresin Matrices” project via the Agency for Renewable Raw Materials (FNR). Project partners included JOMA Dämmstoffwerk GmbH, J. Rettenmaier & Söhne GmbH + Co KG, Nabaltec and DAW SE (Deutsche Amphibolin-Werke).
The final report is available at fnr.de under the funding ID 22023516.
The organopor.com website provides basic information about the project history and properties of OrganoPor materials.
Fraunhofer LBF in Darmstadt has stood for the safety and reliability of lightweight structures for more than 80 years. Today, with its expertise in the areas of structural durability, system reliability, vibration technology and polymer technology, the Institute provides solutions for three of the most important cross-cutting issues of the future: lightweight design, functional integration and cyberphysical mechanical engineering systems. The focus here is on solutions to social challenges such as resource efficiency and emission reduction as well as future mobility, like e-mobility and autonomous, networked driving. Comprehensive skills ranging from data acquisition in real operational field use to data analysis and data interpretation, in addition to deriving specific measures to design and improve material, component and system properties form the basis for this. Customers come from automotive and commercial vehicle construction, railway transport engineering, shipbuilding, aviation, machine and plant construction, power engineering, electrical engineering, medical engineering and the chemical industry. They benefit from the proven expertise of about 400 employees and cutting-edge technology accommodated in more than 17,900 square meters of laboratory and experimental space.
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