Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development
Construction: from ENEA, a new low-cost and highly insulating material
An innovative building material with competitive prices, equipped with high levels of thermal and acoustic insulation, extremely resistant to fire and mechanical stresses and with characteristics that make it suitable for use in other sectors. This is what ENEA researchers have patented under the name BIOAERMAC. The material was developed in the course of the INNCED project- funded by the ENEA 2019 PoC- in partnership with Fluorsid S.p.A., an Italian company that is a world leader in the production of inorganic fluorine derivatives.
“For both new buildings and restoration and renovation activities, the reliability and effectiveness of a product in the construction sector depend on technical requirements such as fire resistance, thermal-acoustic insulation capabilities, lightness and impact resistance; not only on the mechanical characteristics of the materials, which for a long time were the only evaluation parameter”, explains Piero De Fazio, ENEA researcher and inventor of the patent together with a multidisciplinary team of colleagues from the departments of Energy Technologies and Sustainability: Corradino Sposato, Maria Bruna Alba, Andrea Feo and Giorgio Leter. “Other requirements pertaining to environmental and economic sustainability such as durability, healthiness, resource recovery and end-of-life recycling are also important for materials. In developing the patent, we considered each of these aspects”, adds De Fazio.
A by-product of the hydrofluoric acid production cycle, anhydrite, was used in the patented material. This is one of Fluorsid's main assets, while ENEA’s research on composite construction materials focused on improving energy performance.
“The innovative construction material prototype has a TRL4. Its performance characteristics meet, and in some cases exceed, those of other competitors on the market. It is the foundation of the partnership with Fluorsid, aimed at further developing research conducted up to the TRL6 level, in other words, as technology proven in a pilot plant”, De Fazio concludes.
“Fluorsid strongly believes in research aimed at developing innovative and sustainable products”, explains Luca Pala, director of Research & Development at Fluorsid. “The collaboration with ENEA”—he adds—“makes it possible to focus on the realisation, in the near future, of a high-performing and sustainable product, obtained with considerable reductions in carbon dioxide. We are convinced that this type of project is crucial to building a better future for all, based on respect for the environment and the identification of alternatives that can reduce our impact”.