Thermal Insulating Foams Produced From Glass Waste and Banana Leaves

Abstract

In this work, compositions containing transparent glass bottles and banana leaves (desiccated and crushed), with different mass fractions (30-50%), were prepared for obtaining cellular materials for thermal insulation purposes. The formulated and prepared compositions were uniaxially pressed (10 MPa) and the compact powders fired between 700 and 850°C for 30 min in order to investigate the effect of the banana leaves on the formation of pores and on the thermal and mechanical properties of the processed glass foams. The results indicated that the obtained glass foams with porosities between 58.5 and 87.5%, compressive strength ranging between 1.17 and 3.50 MPa and thermal conductivity ranging between 0.06 and 0.15 W/mK, are potential candidates to work as thermal insulators with appropriate properties for a specific application.

Avaliação da adição de resíduos de vidro sodo-cálcico e erva-mate em matriz cerâmica

“…Nos materiais cerâmicos há a possibilidade de incorporar o pó de vidro substituindo, por exemplo, o feldspato, conferindo resistência mecânica ao produto final além de não causar prejuízos às demais propriedades do novo material cerâmico obtido [16,17]. Por outro lado, a erva-mate (Ilex paraguariensis) possui resíduos significativos tanto do cultivo quanto do consumo, em regiões temperadas e subtropicais do Brasil, Paraguai e Argentina [18][19][20][21][22]. A produção de erva-mate é significativa; por exemplo, o Brasil produz 860 mil toneladas por ano, seguido por Argentina que produz 690 mil toneladas e pelo Paraguai que produz 85 mil toneladas [23].…”

Glass foams produced from glass and yerba mate (Ilex paraguarinensis) waste

“…Several different materials can be used for the manufacture of porous ceramics, such as alumina, mullite, silicon carbide, zirconia, and hydroxyapatite. However, recent studies have shown numerous advantages and possible uses for discarded glass in the synthesis of glass foams [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13].…”

“…Because of its simplicity, one of the techniques widely used for the production of glass foams is the addition of a foaming agent to the powdered glass, followed by its removal from the heat treatment step to form a cellular structure [4,27]. The foaming agents can be synthetic (polymers) or natural (mineral or vegetable residues) [2,27].…”

“…Significant plant waste in temperate and subtropical regions of Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina comes from Yerba mate (Ilex paraguariensis) cultivation [2,[30][31][32][33]. Worldwide, the production of yerba mate is significant.…”

Peculiarities of a glass-sludge mixture subjected to low-temperature treatment

“…during sintering can be used as foaming agents. Recently, organic compounds that readily form CO 2 /CO as a foaming agent during temperature treatment were used [6,[17][18][19][20]. Therefore, it was interesting to find an organic foaming agent that transforms readily into carbon and requires disposal.…”