Submitted via IRC for AndyTheAbsurd
Washington State University researchers have developed an environmentally-friendly, plant-based material that for the first time works better than Styrofoam for insulation.
The foam is mostly made from nanocrystals of cellulose, the most abundant plant material on earth. The researchers also developed an environmentally friendly and simple manufacturing process to make the foam, using water as a solvent instead of other harmful solvents.
The work, led by Amir Ameli, assistant professor in the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, and Xiao Zhang, associate professor in the Gene and Linda School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering, is published in the journal Carbohydrate Polymers.
[...]The material that they created contains a uniform cellular structure that means it is a good insulator. For the first time, the researchers report, the plant-based material surpassed the insulation capabilities of Styrofoam. It is also very lightweight and can support up to 200 times its weight without changing shape. It degrades well, and burning it doesn’t produce polluting ash.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by j-beda on Friday May 24 2019, @01:24PM (2 children)
I wish everything had all the externalities priced into them. If disposal and pollution and carbon had more accurate prices attached to them, probably Styrofoam would not be as cheap and it would be a lot easier to compare the real costs of different alternatives.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 24 2019, @01:38PM
I sometimes suggest to free marketeers that we strip mine the planet, process all the materials, throw the result into landfills, and hand a bunch of money to people who are already very rich. You know, give the market what it wants.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday May 25 2019, @01:19AM
That would indeed help. You've got a pretty epic uphill battle to get that enacted though.
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