Researchers at ENEA - the Italian national agency for new technologies - have patented Bioaermac, an innovative insulating material for construction with multiple potentialities and characteristics that allow it to be exploited in other sectors as well.
Bioaermac.
In addition to having achieved high levels of thermal and acoustic insulation,
The experimentation of Bioaermac has been made possible thanks to the INNCED project (from the initials of"innovation in the use of chemical process waste for the manufacture of building panels"), financed by the PoC(Proof of Concept) 2019 fund, in collaboration with Fluorsid SpA, an Italian company that is a world leader in the production of inorganic fluorine derivatives.
"In the construction sector, both for new works and for restructuring and restoration activities, reliability and efficiency depend on technical requirements. These are fire resistance, thermo-acoustic insulation capacity, lightness and impact resistance. Not only the mechanical performance of the materials, which for a long time was the only evaluation parameter," explained Piero De Fazio, ENEA researcher and creator of the patent together with colleagues from a multidisciplinary group made up of Corradino Sposato, Maria Bruna Alba, Andrea Feo and Giorgio Leter from the departments of Energy Technologies and Renewable Sources and Sustainability of Productive and Territorial Systems.
"For materials, additional requirements in terms of environmental and economic sustainability are also important, such as durability, healthiness, resource recovery and recyclability at the end of their life. In developing the patent we considered each of these aspects," De Fazio added.
The material
The material patented by ENEA researchers contains anhydrite, a by-product of the hydrofluoric acid production cycle. This component is one of Fluorsid's main contributions. ENEA, for its part, focused on improving energy efficiency.
This component is one ofFluorsid's main contributions.
"The prototype of innovative material for the building sector has a Technology Maturity Level (TRL) equal to 4, which corresponds to laboratory-validated products, and presents performance characteristics in some cases better than those of competitors in the market. It forms the basis of the partnership with Fluorsid, with the objective of further developing the research to reach TRL6 level after demonstrations in a pilot plant", concluded De Fazio.
