UNIVERSITY TEAM REPURPOSES SOLID WASTE INTO BUILDING PANELS

publication date: Apr 14, 2008

A team at the University of Colorado-Boulder is using computer modeling software and “reverse engineering” to turn recyclable campus waste into insulated building panels.
Professor Julee Herdt of CU’s College of Architecture and Planning and graduate architecture student Kellen Schauermann have repurposed software from the university’s aerospace engineering sciences department to determine the best combination of cellulose—composed primarily of paper, cardboard and agricultural and wood waste—to create exterior and interior building panels. The result is an updated version of BioSIPs, moldable paneling that won its way to a national championship by Herdt’s Solar Decathlon team in 2005. The new and improved paneling consists of 4-foot by 10-foot corrugated fiber cores, each four to six inches thick, encapsulated by an insulating, soy-based foam that together form a modular wall and roof system, Herdt said.
The project, funded by a two-year, $245,000 State of Colorado Advanced Technology Fund Research Grant, enables Herdt and Schauermann to use physical and computer models to create the best combination of thickness and strength for the panels. “We tell the computer the types of cellulose waste materials we are interested in using and how we want the panels to perform, and the software helps us test our ideas,” Herdt said.
Theoretically, almost any cellulose-based product could be entered into the equation. The concept, patented through the CU Technology Transfer Office, combines waste with a low-grade market value, such as recycled food and beverage packaging, with high-grade fiber from cardboard boxes, for example, to create a high-performance building product.
"There are a lot of sources for cellulose out there, including construction waste wood, which is hard to get rid of in Colorado,” Herdt said. “This grant from the state of Colorado supports our research in diverting waste materials that might otherwise be a disposal problem.”
The resulting building panels, which are cost-effective and fire-retardant, will be used to build the university’s recently established Center for Innovation and Creativity. The BioSIP team is working with Simpson Strong-Tie, an international building connector system firm headquartered in San Francisco, on the design of a “cam-lock” fastener for the panels. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Products Laboratory is also involved on BIOSIP’s research and development.