SAMPLES OF THE THERMAL INSULATION MATERIAL HAVE BEEN DEVELOPED

Since launching of the pilot production line, the development and production of the new thermal insulation material tests is in full swing. The purpose of development of the material tests is to develop the optimal product formulation with the best possible technical properties – density, thermal conductivity, air and sound permeability.

The work on the development of the final product runs for 6 months. During this period, multiple samples of the thermal insulation material have been produced with different waste paper and hemp fibre composition proportions and sheet thickness.

LOW CLASS WASTE PAPER AND HEMP FIBER

The development of the thermal insulation material tests was commenced with recycling of waste paper, forming the thermal insulation material into sheets, using only waste paper without added hemp fibre. The work on these tests did not require much time and the desired results were achieved relatively soon. It can be explained by several years of experience of Balticfloc in waste paper recycling.

The same process was carried out also with hemp fibre, forming the thermal insulation material into sheets, composed only of hemp fibre. The work with hemp fibre was much more time-consuming and complex than planned initially. Also, improvements of the production line were made in order to achieve the desired results.

As soon as it became clear what results can be achieved by producing the thermal insulation material using each component separately, the most significant stage of the development of the thermal insulation material was commenced. The work on creation of thermal insulation material by combining waste paper and hemp fibre was started.

While working on the optimal product formulation of the thermal insulation material, various proportions of waste paper and hemp fibre were experimented. Currently, the best results are shown by samples of the thermal insulation material with the following proportion – 80% of waste paper and 20% of hemp fibre.

Also the sheet thickness experiments were conducted during the development process of the thermal insulation material. At the moment, the production line can produce thermal insulation sheets with thickness from 50 – 100 mm.

Also, unofficial laboratory tests have been conducted on the first samples of the thermal insulation materials, measuring thermal conductivity of the material. Samples of the material of various thickness and composition were sent to the laboratory, which showed thermal conductivity ranging from λ = 0.037 – 0.040 W/mK.

By March of this year (2023), it is planned to produce a batch of the thermal insulation material which will be sent to a laboratory in the Czech Republic to obtain official data on the technical properties of the material. 12 different measurements of technical properties will be made on the thermal insulation material.

The results of technical properties will be used for certification of the thermal insulation material in the European Union Member States and Great Britain.

LOW CLASS WASTE PAPER AND TEXTIL FIBER

While working on the development of thermal insulation material using waste paper and hemp fibre, an idea emerged to conduct experiments also on other types of natural fibre. The aim was to check the current potential of the production line, the versatility of its use and development possibilities.

Our choice fell on textile fibre. Clothing and textile waste is a topical problem already for a while in Latvia. Currently, residents can transfer these types of waste for recycling as sorted waste, but the problem is that there are no facilities in Latvia that carry out further recycling process. Clothing waste of usable quality is sent to third world countries as humanitarian aid, whereas the remaining part is sent abroad where it is recycled into textile fibre which can be used as a raw material for production of new products.

In the nearest future, it is not planned to recycle clothing and other textile waste into secondary use textile fibre in Latvia. Consequently, this type of raw material has to be purchased from abroad. For the first textile fibre thermal insulation material development tests this raw material was purchased from Finland.

The first samples of thermal insulation material made of waste paper and textile fibre have turned out to be unexpectedly successful. As a result, it is planned to develop and improve this thermal insulation material and gradually obtain certification and launch it on the market. This work will be continued outside the framework of LIFE project.