Experimental Investigation on Thermal Characteristics of New Organic-Based Natural Insulation Materials

Using organic-waste materials for thermal insulation is currently an attractive subject for many researchers because of its’ relatively zero price. In this study, we presents an experimental study on the integration of olive pomace, wood and paper, as natural organic wastes with different volumetric proportions for buildings thermal insulation. The dissimilarity of this study from others is the fact of using organic waste materials at raw-state instead of performing a pre-treatment, which will not be charge-free. The experimentation was basically achieved at Blida1 university in Algeria and the results showed a very good thermal insulating potential with a minimum measured thermal conductivity of 0.168 W/mK for a composition of 70% pomace and 30% wood which correspond to a thermal resistance of 0.3 m
²
K/W for a 0.05m thickness and thermal diffusivity of 2.71x10-7 m
²
/s. Another interesting result was found by a composition of 60% pomace, 30% wood with 10% of salt. This latter developed a thermal conductivity and resistance of 0.172 W/mK and 0.29 m
²
K/W respectively for the same thickness, the thermal diffusivity value was about 2.39 x10-7 m
²
/s.