Sustainable composites for façades and interior partitions to improve indoor air quality in new builds and restoration
Indoor Air Quality and emissions from building materials have been over the last decades a major challenge for scientists, industry and consumers. In recent years there is a growing trend to replace traditional brick and mortar construction materials, façades which contribute to contaminants such as VOCs, formaldehyde, particulates and fibres by multilayer façades.
They comprise several layers that provide the insulation and protection properties required in traditional façades and are usually designed to have an exterior finished ventilated façade and an interior part formed by plaster walls. The inner part of the façade consists of several panels that provide insulation, and also fire and water protection.
OSIRYS is an EC funded project which addresses this growing need to improve indoor air quality and energy efficiency by developing forest-based sustainable biocomposites and products, to be applied in retrofitting and new building construction. These will demonstrate a variety of functionalities able to meet the strictest requisites of the Building Code and will be also demonstrated in real-life applications.
The Consortium is working with new eco-innovative building materials, which are able to provide a healthier indoor environment, to develop a holistic solution to the current emissions challenges facing the construction industry. These new materials will improve air quality by eliminating micro-organisms, increasing thermal and acoustic insulation and controlling breathability of the construction systems.
This four year project is led by Tecnalia (project coordinators), in partnership with Acciona, AIMPLAS, ENAR and VISESA from Spain, NetComposites from the UK, Fraunhofer, SICC and Tecnaro from Germany, IVL from Sweden, Conenor and VTT from Finland, Omikron from Hungary, UNStudio from the Netherlands, Bergamo Tecnologie from Poland, Collanti Concorde from Italy, and Amorim Cork Composites from Portugal.
AIMPLAS role within the project is mainly related to the functionalization of graphene for its use with thermosetting resins, and pultrusion process with natural fibers and bioresins.