Development of Thermal Insulation from Local Agricultural Waste

Abstract

In Lithuania yearly composes large quantity of waste during processing of agricultural plants. Large quantity of these waste amounts a straw. A small part of straw is used for biofuel, the remaining part of straw is chopped and injected in the soil. Purpose of this work is to explore possibilities for production of effective insulation material from straw. In this paper assessment of straw structure and technological factors on the thermal conductivity are presented. For the experiments straw of triticale were used. Thermal conductivity with different straw orientation and structure were measured. It was found that in the laboratory prepared samples has approximately 1.5 times lower thermal conductivity, in which majority of straw are oriented perpendicular to heat flow, than plant specimens prepared from straw bale and roll, in which majority of the straw are oriented parallel to heat flow. It was observed that increasing the density of loose straw thermal conductivity increases too, while thermal conductivity of chopped straw remains stable or declines slightly.