PROJECTS

The development of new low environmental impact materials for the construction industry is a strategic priority of the European Community, and one that should generate tangible opportunities. At the same time, the market has seen a more systematic demand for high-performance products that can effectively meet the needs of modern architecture and sustainable construction. This application concerns a technology-based project with high potential for economic value. It focuses on developing innovative composite materials, produced from rice husk, rubber and cork waste. The idea is to combine the most useful properties of each waste product in composite materials, whose characteristics are better than those of its components, aiming to develop new products with high dynamic, thermal and acoustic performance, such as eco-boards, resilient layers, flooring panel, acoustic diffusers and vibration isolation pads. The project is firmly based on the exploitation of sustainable constructive processes. First, by developing materials, that incorporates waste and by-products and then by using those in constructive systems designed to have a lower environmental impact than competing products. Commercial success will be boosted by showing that the new materials developed in fact ensure all the functional requirements for the specified applications are met and introduce high standards of sustainability. The project will be carried out in a consortium by Amorim Isolamentos, leader in the expanded insulation corkboard, by LogAcústica, a reference company in Portugal in Acoustic Engineering, Flexocol, specialists on the development and manufacture of industrial components made from natural and synthetic rubber, and ITeCons, an organization within the science and technology system geared to developing new constructive systems and processes. ITeCons has enormous experience in developing and characterizing materials of high mechanical, hygrothermal and acoustic performance.