Cleaner production of thermal insulation boards utilizing buffing dust waste

Buffing dust waste/polystyrene bundling insulating composite is developed. Different proportions of buffing dust (from 5 wt% up to 25 wt %.) were used. The blends were mixed using co-twine extruder prior exposing it to heat and pressure using hot press machine. The thermal, physical and mechanical properties of the composites were investigated. The prepared insulation composites display a better thermal performance than pure polystyrene insulation boards. This study shows that, adding of 10 wt % buffing dust to polystyrene composites reduces the thermal conductivity of the insulation board by 13%. All prepared composites have superior thermal conductivity (0.044–0.056 W/m-K), compression strength (11.55–8.23 MPa) and flexural strength (29.51–10.53 MPa) compared to conventional bundling thermal insulation materials without degrading the mechanical properties. Chemical treatment was applied to the buffing dust filler to improve the composite integrity. Thermogravimetric and FTIR analyses were used to study the effect of the chemical treatment of the fillers. The findings of this work prove that the developed composite can be used as an alternative insulating material in building sector. In addition, it reduces the environmental impact of both buffing hazardous waste and polystyrene and the used recycling solution contributes to the fulfilment of united nation sustainable development goals and cleaner production building insulation boards.