GREEN INSTRUCT

The project:

The goal of the GREEN INSTRUCT project is to develop a prefabricated wall panel for buildings, made from Construction and Demolition Waste (CDW), incorporating ’Green Wall’ technology for the treatment of grey & storm water, reduced weight, improved acoustic and thermal performance and multiple functionalities.

The rapid worldwide growth of the construction industry during recent decades has resulted in an enormous increase in the global production of  Construction and Demolition Waste (CDW), placing an enormous strain on the environment. The industry urgently needs to implement changes to economic policy and decision-making criteria to address this issue and to safe-guard the environment.

Some challenges to be overcome are:

– CDW contains a complicated combination of bulky and heavy materials such as concrete (40%–67%), wood, asphalt, gypsum, metals, bricks, glass, and plastics.

– There is currently 850 million tons of CDW in Europe (31% of total waste generation).

– The global cement industry produces 1.6 billion tons of CO2 annually (8% of total emissions).

– There is 39 kg of construction waste in every square meter of building.

– The recent financial crisis impacted on the building and construction sector with increased unemployment and increased pressure on sub-sectors such as construction materials, distribution channels and logistics.

– EU targets set for 2020 and 2050 (reducing CO2 emissions by 80-95%) create an increased need for efficient, affordable and deep refurbishment by a factor of 2 to 3 times the current rate.

– Deep refurbishment is difficult due to the level of time and capital investment required, and inadequately optimised technologies.

The solution proposed in the Project will materialize into a panel integrated by several layers, with high structural performance, thermal and acoustic insulation, comfortable healthy indoor environment, high aesthetic value, grey & storm water management, easy installation, light weight, recyclable, reusable, energy / resource efficient and cost effective.

Our role:

CIDETEC is in charge of developing the Polyurethane foam (PUfoam) layer, which is one of the basic components of the Green Instruct Panel. This layer is very important from the point of view of insulation (thermal and acoustic), and also should contribute to give good waterproof quality to the overall panel. For this purpose, PUfoam coming from CDW will be treated in order to reuse it as a component of the new PUfoam layer. Moreover, PUfoam from CDW will be studied as possible additive for the extrusion process of geopolymer, the material other parts of the panel are made of.