Investigation of Miscanthus and Sunflower Stalk Fiber‐Reinforced Composites for Insulation Applications

Abstract

The development of materials based on renewable and low-cost resources is today’s crucial interest for civil engineering. This work intends to investigate two new vegetable fibers as composite reinforcement for insulation application in the building industry. Miscanthus and sunflower stalk have mainly been selected for their high fiber content, low water content after harvesting, and availability. These criteria lead to good structural properties and allow a reduction in production and transportation costs. This study aims at demonstrating the feasibility to produce cohesive panels from these lignocellulosic fibers and their related interesting mechanical and thermal properties according to various natural binders.

Sustainable thermal insulation biocomposites from rice husk, wheat husk, wood fibers and textile waste fibers: Elaboration and performances evaluation

“…In this regard, there has been growing interest to develop sustainable thermal insulation materials from renewable resources and industrial wastes (El Hage et al, 2019;Liu et al, 2017;Mija et al, 2017). Composites derived from natural resources have great potential because they have low density, less environmental impact and good thermal properties (Eschenhagen et al, 2019;Guna et al, 2019;Muthuraj et al, 2018a, b, c;Zach et al, 2013). Among the natural resource-based materials, rice and wheat husk are main by-products during their production.…”

“…Various binders were explored in literature to bind renewable resources such as sugarcane bagasse (Guna et al, 2019), miscanthus fiber (Eschenhagen et al, 2019), sunflower stalk fiber (Eschenhagen et al, 2019), wood fibers/textile fibers (Lacoste et al, 2018), coffee chaff T (Buratti et al, 2018), stubble fibres (Binici et al, 2014), corn stalk (Palumbo et al, 2017), rice straw (Wei et al, 2015a, b), rice husk (Chabannes et al, 2014), and food crop by-products (Palumbo et al, 2015). For instance, alginate, starch and tannin resin have been used as biobased binders for composites manufacture from agricultural crop byproduct composites, larch bark, and wood fibers/textile waste (Kain et al, 2014;Lacoste et al, 2018;Palumbo et al, 2017).…”

“…Their mechanical and thermal performances were competitive with those of biobased insulators available on the market namely hemp concrete, coconut husk and date palm fibers insulation boards (Mati-Baouche et al, 2015). Recently, wheat gluten, starch, casein and gelatine have been used as biobased binder for biocomposites development (Eschenhagen et al, 2019;Guna et al, 2019). Similarly, Mati-Baouche et al (Mati-Baouche et al, 2015) have explore different polysaccharides (e.g.…”

Increase of Miscanthus Cultivation with New Roles in Materials Production—A Review

“…Due to the parenchyma content of Miscanthus and the accompanying increased porosity compared to woody biomass, inherent thermal insulation properties have been postulated [67,94]. In this context, insulating particleboards have been evaluated for different technical aspects.…”

Methane Yield Potential of Miscanthus (Miscanthus × giganteus (Greef et Deuter)) Established under Maize (Zea mays L.)

“…A wide range of miscanthus genotypes have been screened for different marginality factors such as salinity [6] and erosion [7]. Miscanthus biomass has quality characteristics that allow it to be used to manifold ways: as a combustion fuel, [8][9][10], bioethanol [11][12][13], bedding material [10,14,15], building material [16][17][18][19][20] and in biogas production [21,22]. For example, low inorganic constituents and high lignin content is preferred for combustion [23], whereas low lignin is required for efficient biogas [24] as well as ethanol production [25].…”