Papers by Keyword: Green Building Material

Abstract: Construction sector has consumed an important percentage of natural resources and generated much of the waste discharged into the environment in the last decades. This is the reason why the social consciousness has strongly grown towards sustainable development. Concepts such as recycle, reuse, reduce and energy saving are gaining importance in obtaining products under a clearly defined objective of a sustainable development. The revaluation of agroforestry waste has established itself as a solution to the problems associated with these wastes and, increasingly, is being incorporated into the manufacture of new materials. The Wood Plastic Composites (WPC’s) are an important group within these new sustainable building materials. WPC’s are obtained from recycled plastics and natural fibres waste. This kind of materials reduces the consumption of resources and the amount of waste. These materials have emerged to replace natural wood in some exterior applications, where the durability of natural wood is most damaged. Natural wood, in addition to the loss of color that suffers in exterior, has other disadvantages such as anisotropy and hygroscopicity. WPC's do not have these drawbacks. In this way, the WPC’s try to imitate the appearance of natural wood, with a good durability outdoors. Because of this, there are numerous companies that develop WPC products with different plastics and natural waste, with the aim of obtaining the best appearance and durability. In this paper, the color degradation of various WPC materials when exposed to ultraviolet (UV) radiation is evaluated. An artificial aging chamber with a fluorescent UV lamp and a colorimeter have been used to quantify the color parameters. Thus, conclusions are drawn on which plastics and residues achieve a minor alteration of color, an aspect highly appreciated in outdoor applications.

Abstract: The present world cannot be imagined without construction industry. On other hand we are not able to prevent impact of construction on the environment due to usage of its key component that is cement, which plays a greater role in the emission of greenhouse gases. Every tonne of Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) that is produced releases on average a similar amount of CO₂ into the atmosphere, or in total roughly 6% of all man-made carbon emissions. One of the purposes of research should be to lower the amount of cement during construction without compromising the quality of building structure. Microbial metabolic activities often contribute to selective cementation by biomineralization. In the present study, a novel microbial based low energy green building material based on microbially induced calcium carbonate precipitation (MICP) has been reported that is known as “biocement”. Biocement has enormous potential and usage in building materials and structures with potential to partially replace the cement. The research demonstrates that production of biocement can enhance the durability of building structures in addition to have least impact on the environment.