Buildings in Europe are responsible for more than 40% of total energy consumption and 25% of carbon emissions. This is mainly due to the high number of old housing stock with very poor insulation systems. Such buildings require a huge energy demand for heating and cooling needs, which increases their carbon footprint. Moreover, by 2050 it is predicted that the number of households worldwide will grow by 67% and service sector buildings by 195%.
Developing innovative energy-efficient and low/zero-carbon materials are key areas in which the building sector can meet carbon reduction targets. A possible solution is to use phase change materials (PCMs). These can control temperature fluctuations and increase thermal mass in buildings thanks to their ability to store and release thermal energy during phase change processes (melting and freezing). However, PCMs need to be encapsulated before they can be incorporated into the built environment, to avoid leaking and incompatibilities with the construction matrix which contains them. There are several paths to incorporate PCMs. One existing method soaks commercial lightweight aggregates (LWA) in PCM. Therefore, the amount of PCM that the LWAs can host is limited by the latter’s absorption capacity, which is low.
The overall objective of this EU funded project was to deliver new energy efficient construction materials that can contribute to achieving the 2020 target of nearly zero-energy and highly material efficient buildings, which is an essential target to achieve sustainable growth in the EU. To achieve this, we engineered eco-lightweight granules (eco-LWG) to help mitigate the aforementioned problems.
