Experimental research on an innovative sawdust biomass-based insulation material for buildings

Abstract Sawdust wastes, having high production in China, can be utilized as raw materials of insulation materials to increase their application value and save resources, while the geopolymer will be a good adhesive because of its unique characteristics1 and low CO2 emissions during the production process. Therefore, a novel biomass-based composite material, which can be used for building insulation, was fabricated with geopolymers as adhesives and sawdust wastes as aggregates. In addition, the influence of three main variables was studied to determine the material’s optimal proportion by testing its thermal and mechanical properties, water resistance and microstructure. The three variables were wetting water to biomass mass ratio (WW/B ratio), H2O2 to adhesive mass ratio (H/A ratio) and biomass to adhesive mass ratio (B/A ratio), respectively. The results indicated that the composite materials with the WW/B ratios of 1∼2, H/A ratios of 0.012∼0.015, and B/A ratio of 0.12 were the optimum ones with heat conductivity of 0.112∼0.125 W/(m·K) and compression strength of 0.76∼1.71 MPa. This new biomass-based insulation material with good physical performances can contribute to building energy conservation, cleaner production, and sustainable development.