For oral presentation as a plenary, keynote, or invited speaker only

New Novel Thermal Insulation and Sound-Absorption Materials Extracted from Agro/medical Waste materials: Toward Green Cities of Zero Waste

Mohamed E. Ali

King Saud University, College of Engineering, Mechanical Engineering Department, P. O. Box 800, Riyadh 11421, Saudi Arabia.

E-mail: mali@ksu.edu.sa, https://fac.ksu.edu.sa/mali

ORCID #: 0000-0001-8149-8098

New novel biodegradable natural thermal insulation materials are manufactured from agro-waste materials of date palm trees’ residuals, such as leaves or surface fibers, pineapple crown leaves, sunflower seeds (hull), watermelon seeds (husk or shells), Eucalyptus Globulus waste leaves, wheat straw fibers, and Apple of Sodom fibers. Other wastes, such as coffee and tea filters and black tea bags, can also be implemented. In addition, medical waste of personal protective equipment, such as disposable facemasks, can also be used after some health hazard treatments.  The developed materials and their hybrid ones can be used in building thermal insulation.  Laboratory-scale thermal insulation boards are made from a single agro material or a hybrid composite with different compositions.  Different binders, such as wood adhesive and/or cornstarch or any other binders, will be used to bind the fibers/leaves.  Morphology analysis of the fibers/leaves, such as scanning electron microscopy, chemical composition, Fourier transformation Infrared, and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, is performed for each loose agro/medical waste raw material. Thermal characteristic (stability and decomposition) tests of the fibers/leaves of waste materials or the composite materials are determined.  Such thermal tests will include thermo-gravimetric analysis and its differential. Thermal conductivity coefficients of the raw materials and their composites are determined in the range of 0.05 to 0.08 W/m.K for a temperature range of 20 °C to 80 °C at different densities.  Sound absorption coefficients are obtained and found in the range 0.4- 0.8 in a frequency range between 500 to 6000 Hz. The developed composites have a low moisture content under the environmental conditions of Riyadh. All the earlier-mentioned tests confirm that using such agro/medical waste materials and their composites as novel materials for sound-absorbing and thermal insulation in buildings can help achieve green buildings and satisfy the Kingdom's 2030 strategy toward a smart green city with zero agro/medical waste materials.