Fire Suppression and Thermal Behavior of Biobased Rigid Polyurethane Foam Filled with Biomass Incineration Waste Ash

• Published in: Polymers Vol. 12; no. 3; p. 683
• Main Authors: Kairytė, Agnė, Kremensas, Arūnas, Vaitkus, Saulius, Członka, Sylwia, Strąkowska, Anna
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 19.03.2020; MDPI
• Subjects: Additives; Ashes; Biomass; biomass waste ash; Building materials; Carbon; carbon footprint; Closed loops; Combustion; Compressive strength; Construction materials; Environmental impact; Fire protection; fire resistance; Fire safety; Flame retardants; Heat conductivity; Incineration; Polyurethane foam; Raw materials; Smoke; Spectrum analysis; Submerging; Supply chains; Surfactants; Sustainability; Thermal conductivity; Thermal stability; Thermodynamic properties; Waste disposal; Water absorption; Lithuania; United States > US; Germany; polyurethane foam; carbon footprint; thermal stability; fire resistance; biomass waste ash
• ISSN: 2073-4360; 2073-4360
• DOI: 10.3390/polym12030683

Currently, there is great demand to implement circular economy principles and motivate producers of building materials to integrate into a closed loop supply chain system and improve sustainability of their end-product. Therefore, it is of great interest to replace conventional raw materials with inorganic or organic waste-based and filler-type additives to promote sustainability and the close loop chain. This article investigates the possibility of bottom waste incineration ash (WA) particles to be used as a flame retardant replacement to increase fire safety and thermal stability under higher temperatures. From 10 wt.% to 50 wt.% WA particles do not significantly deteriorate performance characteristics, such as compressive strength, thermal conductivity, and water absorption after 28 days of immersion, and at 32 °C WA particles improve the thermal stability of resultant PU foams. Furthermore, 50 wt.% WA particles reduce average heat release by 69% and CO and CO yields during fire by 76% and 77%, respectively. Unfortunately, WA particles do not act as a smoke suppressant and do not reduce smoke release rate.