Recycled tyre rubber resin-bonded for building insulation systems towards energy efficiency

Currently, waste management and energy consumption are two of the major concerns of humankind. In Europe are produced around 355 million tyres per year and buildings account for 40% of the total primary energy consumption. Thermal bridges may be responsible for up to 30% of heat losses in buildings. This research project intends to develop a new cost-effective eco-friendly thermal insulation material, that will be used mainly, but not exclusively, as a thermal break in LSF building structures.

 

The main idea is to take advantage of recycled tyre rubber as a main raw-material and mixed it with an advanced state of the art material within a resin-bonded composite. It is planned to evaluate and optimize the performance of this new composite insulation at material level and building elements level (e.g. walls) in order take maximum thermal and acoustic advantage of it. It will be also assessed its environmental impacts and costs from a life cycle perspective.