High-Performance Compressed Straw Board (HPCSB): A New Generation of Building Materials

根据全球足迹网络，我们需要1.6个地球的资源来支持目前的生活方式。未来几代人将遭受苦难;因此，联合国可持续发展目标提供了一个促进所有人可持续增长的机会。该项目符合改造世界的17个目标（即目标11 -可持续城市和社区）。如果农业废弃物可以通过先进的制造工艺进行“升级循环”，那么它们就可以大规模地重新引入，因为它们的性能和可持续性值得建筑行业充分采用。以工业上可行的方法利用秸秆生物质制造建筑产品是向低碳经济过渡的一个重要因素。该项目旨在为建筑行业引入一种大大改进的轻质压缩稻草板（CSB），其强度足以承受拉伸和压缩下的结构载荷。它将利用可扩展的方法和工具，开发一种工业上有效和高度选择性地去除秸秆原料缺陷的新概念。秸秆原料的优化，即去除其缺陷并改善其表面，将使CSB的性能大幅提高50%。该项目的重点是利用小麦秸秆（Triticum aestivum）。然而，该议定书应适用于禾本科的其他物种，如其他谷物秸秆，特别是诺福克芦苇（芦苇）。麦秆分离后的残留物每年为1600万至2000万吨。并不是所有这些都可以送到畜牧场。每年有多达1000万吨的小麦秸秆被重新犁回土地，或者被用于非常低级的用途。我们的研究可以结束这种潜在的宝贵资源的浪费。这项研究的动机来自我们开发和展示的试点结果，其中采用了环保的预处理，这导致了树脂和秸秆微孔表面之间的界面改善。结果表明，各种表面轮廓的化学功能（即当纵向切成两半时，内部和外部）改变了粘合性能，即提取物、蜡和二氧化硅集中在外表面上，抑制了粘合质量，这转化为负载下的无效应力传递。然而，预处理可以显著地：（i）通过部分去除提取物、蜡和二氧化硅来改性秸秆的表面，这使得其与水基树脂更相容，（ii）导致秸秆的微孔结构膨胀，从而在树脂固化时在微观水平上诱导机械缠结。因此，这些试验结果给了我们升级预处理的动力。

According to the Global Footprint Network, we need the resources of 1.6 planet Earths to support the current lifestyle. Generations to come will suffer; therefore, the UN's Sustainable Development Goals provides a chance to promote a sustainable growth for all. This project is in line with the 17 goals to transform our world (i.e. goal 11 - Sustainable cities and communities). If agricultural waste can be 'upcycled' via a cutting edge, state of the art manufacturing process, they can be re-introduced on a large scale as modern and worthy of ample adoption for their qualities of performance and sustainability by the construction industry. Straw biomass use with an industrially feasible approach for manufacturing of construction products is an important element of the transition to low-carbon economy. This project aims to introduce a greatly improved, lightweight variant of compressed straw board (CSB) for the construction industry, strong enough to accommodate structural loads both in tension and under compression. It will exploit a novel concept of industrially efficient and highly selective removal of defects in straw feedstock, using scalable methods and tools. The optimising of the straw feedstock, i.e. removing its defects and improving its surface, will substantially enhance the performance of CSBs by 50%. This project is focussed on use of wheat straw (Triticum aestivum). However, the protocol should be applicable to other species in the family Poaceae, such as other cereal straw and, in particular, Norfolk reed (Phragmites australis). The residue left after separation of the grain from the stem of wheat straw is 16-20 million tonnes annually. Not all of this can be sent to livestock farms. Up to 10 million tonnes of wheat straw every year is either ploughed back into the land or put to very low-grade use. Our research can bring an end to the waste of this potentially valuable resource.The motivation for this research is derived from our developed and demonstrated pilot results, where an environmentally friendly pre-treatment was employed, which led to an improved interface between resins and the micro porous surface of straw. The results showed that chemical functionalities of various surface profiles (i.e. when cut longitudinally in half, inner and outer) altered the bonding performance, i.e. extractive, waxes, and silica concentrated on the outer surface, inhibited the bonding quality which translates into an inefficient stress transfer under load. The pre-treatment however, could significantly: (i) modify the surface of straw with the partial removal of extractives, waxes, and silica which made it more compatible with water based resins, (ii) cause the microcellular structure of straw to expand and hence induce the mechanical entanglement on a micro level upon resin solidification. Therefore, these pilot results have given us the motivation to upscale the pre-treatment.