Journal of Cleaner Production 119 (2016) 99e107

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Journal of Cleaner Production

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jclepro

Porous biomass fly ash-based geopolymers with tailored thermal

conductivity
Rui M. Novais*, L.H. Buruberri, G. Ascensa
~o, M.P. Seabra, J.A. Labrincha
rio de Santiago, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal
Materials and Ceramic Engineering Department, CICECO, University of Aveiro, Campus Universita

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In this work novel, porous biomass fly ash-based-geopolymers were produced by using hydrogen
Received 9 September 2015 peroxide as pore forming agent. This innovative material can help to mitigate the energy losses inside
Received in revised form buildings, while simultaneously reducing the volume of generated wastes, thus contributing towards
11 January 2016
sustainable construction. Results demonstrate that the content of hydrogen peroxide controls the geo-
Accepted 27 January 2016
polymer physical properties such as porosity, mechanical resistance and thermal conductivity. The latter
Available online 4 February 2016
allows the production of geopolymers displaying suitable properties for thermal insulation applications.
Geopolymers exhibiting thermal conductivity as low as 0.107 W/m K and a density of 560 kg/m3 were
Keywords:
Geopolymers
produced, showing the potential of these materials in applications requiring lightweight and low thermal
Biomass fly ash conductivity materials. Besides this material is produced using a simple and cost effective approach,
Lightweight promoting waste valorization by reuse of biomass fly ash, which further demonstrates its potential.
Thermal conductivity © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Porosity

1. Introduction ambient temperatures (Komnitsas and Zaharaki, 2007). Their main

advantages are: i) production using low cost and green technology;
The energy consumption, believed to account for ~3/4 of global ii) non-flammable and high temperature stability; iii) safe for
greenhouse gases emissions (Huaman and Jun, 2014), represents a humans and iv) highly resistant towards freezing/thawing cycles.
major environmental concern. In the European Community, Much research has been focused on mechanical properties of
buildings are responsible for nearly 40% of the total energy con- GPs (Nazari and Sanjayan, 2015; Pelisser et al., 2013; Torres-
sumption (Allouhi et al., 2015), whose energy demand has been Carrasco and Puertas, 2015), while investigations regarding the
increasing at rate of 1.8% per year over the last 40 years, and could production of lightweight/porous GPs are scarce (Li et al., 2015;
grow to nearly 58% of the total by 2050 (Nejat et al., 2015). A Papa et al., 2015). Surprisingly, even fewer investigations have
paradigm shift is, therefore, inevitable, and as a result specific taken the thermal conductivity of porous GPs into consideration
legislation regarding the energy performance of buildings has been (Feng et al., 2015; Vaou and Panias, 2010). GPs obtained from foamy
adopted by the EU. In this context, thermal insulating materials perlite (Vaou and Panias, 2010), or based on fly-ash (FA) and using
(TIMs) can play a vital role on the energy performance of buildings H2O2 as blowing agent (Feng et al., 2015), show thermal conduc-
by reducing the energy loss, and greatly enhancing their efficiency. tivities equal to 0.03 and 0.0744 W/m K, respectively.
Gypsum board and wood fibre board are widely used insulating In the Portuguese paper pulp industry, the valorization of forest
materials for partition walls, yet the high apparent density and residues by combustion is a common practice. Nonetheless, this
thermal conductivity of the former, and the low compressive procedure generates substantial amounts of ash (bottom and fly).
strength of the latter, are major technical limitations. The devel- Common methodologies for their management, such as addition to
opment of new TIMs for partition walls with enhanced properties is forest soils and their incorporation in cement production, have
of the utmost importance. environmental and technical limitations (Barbosa et al., 2013).
Geopolymers (GPs) are inorganic aluminosilicate polymers Therefore, new applications allowing the valorization of these
synthesized by alkali activation of Si- and Al-rich materials at near wastes would be a positive contribution towards their
management.
Coal FA has been extensively investigated in geopolymer pro-
* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ35 1234370262; fax: þ35 1234370204. duction (Al-Zboon et al., 2011; Embong et al., 2016), while in-
E-mail address: [email protected] (R.M. Novais). vestigations considering biomass FA, as considered here, are less

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.01.083
0959-6526/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
100 R.M. Novais et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 119 (2016) 99e107

common. In this work, biomass FA was used for partial replacement The mineralogical compositions of MK, FA and geopolymer
of metakaolin, to reduce the environmental impact of the GP, while specimens with 28 days of cure were assessed by X-ray powder
simultaneously reducing its production cost. The main novelty of diffraction (XRD). The XRD was conducted on a Rigaku Geigerflex
this investigation is the production of porous biomass FA-based GPs D/max-Series instrument (Cu Ka radiation, 10e80 , 0.02 2q step-
with tailored thermal conductivity, that may be used as partition scan and 10 s/step), and phase identification by X'Pert HighScore
board and wall panels, thus mitigating the energy losses inside Plus software.
buildings. The influence of pore forming agent incorporation con- The chemical composition of FA and MK was obtained by using
tent on the GPs porosity, mechanical resistance and thermal con- X-ray fluorescence (Philips X'Pert PRO MPD spectrometer). The loss
ductivity was also considered. of ignition (LOI) at 1000  C was also determined. Particle size dis-
tribution was determined by laser diffraction (Coulter LS230
2. Experimental design analyzer). The determination was performed by a laser diffraction
technique (Fraunhofer method) for particles with a particle size
2.1. Materials from 0.4 mm to 2000 mm and simultaneously by PIDS (Polarization
Intensity Differential Scattering) to lower particle sizes (between
GPs were prepared using a mixture of 2/3 metakaolin (MK) and 0.4 mm and 0.04 mm).
1/3 biomass FA as a source of aluminosilicate. The MK was pur- The compressive strength of geopolymer cured for 28 days was
chased under the name of Argical™ M1200S from Univar®, while determined using a Universal Testing Machine (Shimadzu model
biomass FA was collected from biomass burning in the bubbling AG-25 TA) running at a displacement rate of 0.5 mm min1. Three
fluidized combustor of a paper pulp plant in Portugal. In this plant, cylindrical samples of each formulation (22 mm diameter and
wood biomass is burned as a fuel, especially Eucalyptus forest 48 mm length) were tested and the average data reported. Speci-
waste. men's surfaces were polished flat and parallel before testing.
For the alkaline activation, a mixture of hydrated sodium silicate The Archimedes method (using water as immersion fluid) was
(Chem-Lab, Belgium; 8.5 wt.% Na2O, 28.5 wt.% SiO2 and 63 wt.% employed to evaluate the water absorption of the samples, while
H2O) and NaOH (reagent grade, 97%, Sigma Aldrich) was used. The the bulk density was measured by the geometric method.
NaOH solution was prepared by dissolution of 20e40 mesh sodium The true density of the geopolymer prepared without H2O2,
hydroxide beads in distilled water. 2.05 g/cm3, was determined by helium pycnometer technique
A 3% wt./wt. hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) solution was used as (Multipycnometer, Quantachrome). The total porosity of the GPs
foaming agent. prepared with distinct addition of hydrogen peroxide were then
calculated according to the following equation (Landi et al., 2013):
2.2. Geopolymer preparation " !#
bulk density
Total porosityð%Þ ¼ 1ð  100 (1)
Geopolymer specimens were prepared with the following molar true density
oxide ratios: SiO2/Al2O3 ¼ 3.1, Na2O/Al2O3 ¼ 2.0 and Na2O/
SiO2 ¼ 0.6. Different amounts of H2O2 were used to study the effect Room temperature thermal conductivity was measured on cubic
of the pore former on the porous geopolymer materials. In these specimens (40  40  40 mm3) by using a KD2 Pro Thermal
compositions, sodium silicate was substituted by 0.03, 0.15, 0.30, Properties Analyzer (Decagon Devices Inc.), using the dual needle
0.90 and 1.2 wt.% of H2O2. probe system (transient line source method) according to IEEE 442-
The mixing of the blends was carried out by a mechanical pro- 1981 and ASTM D5334. Before the measurements, a standard
cess which involves: i) homogenization of sodium silicate and (DB1175, 0.399 ± 0.050 W/m K) was used to verify the good per-
NaOH solution (12 M) at 60 rpm for 5 min; ii) mixture at the same formance of the sensor. Two samples of each formulation were
speed of the alkaline solution with biomass FA and MK for 10 min, measured and for each sample at least five measurements were
and iii) addition of H2O2 to the blend and mixture for another performed to ensure reproducibility.
2 min at 95 rpm. The BET specific surface areas of the MK and FA were measured
Then, the slurry was transferred to plastic moulds and sealed by N2 adsorption using a 5-point BET method. Measurements were
with a plastic film. The samples were cured in controlled conditions achieved by a Micromeritics Gemini 2380 surface area analyzer
(40  C and 65% relative humidity) using a climatic chamber for 24 h. with ca. 250 mg weight. Standard pretreatment conditions are
Afterwards, the specimens were demoulded and kept sealed in the 105  C and vacuum for 12 h. The samples were sieved (at 75 mm)
same curing conditions until the 7th curing day. Then the samples before the BET measurements.
were then left at ambient conditions till the 28th curing day. Simultaneous thermogravimetry-differential scanning calorim-
etry (TGeDTA) analyses were performed on a Netzsch STA 409 EP
2.3. Material characterization (Germany). The GP was heated at 10  C/min under air.

Scanning electron microscopy (SEM e Hitachi S4100 equipped

with energy dispersion spectroscopy, EDS e Rontec) was used to 3. Results and discussion
characterize the MK, the biomass FA and to investigate the micro-
structure of the porous GPs. 3.1. Metakaolin and biomass fly ash characterization
Optical analysis (Leica EZ4HD microscope) was used for the
morphological analysis of the porous GPs. Samples were cut from The XRD patterns of the investigated MK and biomass FA are
28 days cured GPs using a Struers Secotom-10 table-top cutting presented in Fig. 1, while their chemical composition is shown in
machine. At least six specimens were prepared for each analysis. Table 1. MK exhibits a pronounced reflection between 20 and 30 2q
The images were acquired with a digital camera coupled to the indicating that it contains essentially amorphous silica and
microscope. ImageJ was used to measure the pore size and volume, alumina, with a few crystalline phases such as quartz, muscovite
providing the porous area distribution for each composition, and and anatase. The biomass FA contains large amounts of crystalline
the pore area ratio (sum of all pore areas divided by the total sample phases such as quartz, calcite, lime and microcline. By comparing
area analysed). the spectra, it is evident that MK contains substantially more
 R.M. Novais et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 119 (2016) 99e107 101

Fig. 2. Particle size distribution of metakaolin and fly ash.

3.2. Geopolymer characterization

The XRD patterns of geopolymer samples (cured for 28 days)

prepared with different amounts of hydrogen peroxide are shown
in Fig. 4. All patterns show the presence of a hump between 18 and
38 (2q), which demonstrates the occurrence of the geo-
polymerization reaction. The centre of this broad hump is shifted
towards higher 2q values in comparison with that observed in MK,
which is attributed to the formation of new amorphous phases.
Similar findings were reported by other authors (Zhang et al., 2012).
Mineral phases of precursors (quartz, calcite, muscovite, microcline
and anatase) are still present in the GPs, indicating that the crys-
talline phases are not involved in the geopolymerization reaction
(He et al., 2012). SEM micrographs, presented in Fig. 5, show an
amorphous geopolymer matrix, mainly composed of Si, Al, Na and
Fig. 1. XRD patterns of fly ash (FA) and metakaolin (MK). MK and biomass FA typical Ca. The formation of the geopolymeric gel, which provides evidence
phases can be found elsewhere (Autef et al., 2013; Cwirzen et al., 2014; Vassilev et al.,
2013).
of a geopolymerization reaction (Zhang et al., 2014), was observed
for all compositions. For the sake of brevity, only two compositions
are shown.
amorphous content, which is known to be a contributing factor Fig. 6 presents typical images of the GPs prepared with variable
affecting curing and strength development (He et al., 2012). amounts of H2O2, while Fig. 7 illustrates the GPs microstructure at
The particle size distribution, shown in Fig. 2, shows the FA is the age of 28 days. The influence of the H2O2 content on the pore
much coarser than the MK. FA presents a mean particle size around volume can be depicted from the optical and SEM micrographs. The
63 mm, while the value for MK is just 5 mm. Specific surface area of SEM micrographs reveal significant changes on the geopolymers
MK is 26.15 m2/g, while FA has 8.76 m2/g. microstructure, an increase on porosity being apparent when the
Fig 3a depicts the typical plate-like morphology, characteristic H2O2 content increases.
of metakaolinite particles (Hajjaji et al., 2013), while Fig. 3c reveals To fully characterize the pore morphology, optical analysis was
the asymmetric shape of FA particles, where it should be noted that performed. This technique can provide a detailed two-dimensional
this SEM image has a lower magnification (600 versus 1000 for picture of the pores (Novais et al., 2014, 2015), thus providing a
the MK). The EDS spectrum of MK, reveals the presence of the better insight into the pore size and its distribution. The measured
characteristic elements of this material, namely Al, Si, K, Ti and Fe. parameters are listed in Table 2. When the content of H2O2 in-
The EDS of the FA shows that the most abundant elements are Ca creases, the GPs show higher average and total pore areas, thus
and Si, which is in agreement with their chemical composition (see leading to higher area ratio. The blowing agent amount also dic-
Table 1). tates the number of pores per mm2, which decrease when the
concentration of blowing agent rises.
Fig. 8 shows the cumulative area ratio obtained for the formu-
Table 1
lations mentioned in Table 2. As observed, when the H2O2 content
Chemical composition of metakaolin (MK) and fly ash (FA). increases, the cumulative area ratio shifts towards large pore areas,
for all systems studied. These results show that the blowing agent
Oxides (wt.%) MK FA
content controls both the volume and size of the pores.
SiO2 54.40 25.34 Table 3 gives values of water absorption, apparent density and
TiO2 1.55 0.60
total porosity for GPs cured for 28 days. Results show that water
Al2O3 39.40 6.05
Fe2O3 1.75 4.15 absorption and total porosity values increased when the content of
MgO 0.14 3.61 H2O2 rises, while the apparent density decreases. Fig. 9 presents the
CaO 0.10 36.72 total porosity and the total pore area (measured by image analysis)
MnO 0.01 0.42
as a function of H2O2 content. As depicted, the trend is remarkably
Na2O e 0.95
K2O 1.03 5.84
similar for the two parameters, thus supporting the results ob-
SO3 e 3.84 tained by image analysis.
P2O5 0.06 4.70 The effect of the blowing agent content on the GPs apparent
LOI 2.66 5.12 density and area ratio is illustrated in Fig. 10. Two different regions
102 R.M. Novais et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 119 (2016) 99e107

Fig. 3. SEM micrographs and EDS spectrum of metakaolin (a and b) and fly ash (c and d).

can be distinguished: (i) region I between 0.03 and 0.30 wt.% H2O2 in each bubble. As a result, the bubble size increases and the
where the area ratio sharply increases from 4.37 to 27.98% and the apparent density decreases sharply (region I). When the H2O2
apparent density decreases from 1200 to 790 kg/m3 and (ii) region content exceeds a threshold (0.30 wt.%) the amount of oxygen
II above 0.30 wt.% H2O2, where the fluctuations on the area ratio greatly increases, resulting in bubble coalescence, which opens the
and apparent density are minor. These results can be explained structure to the environment, reducing the expansion and, there-
considering the foaming mechanism of the geopolymeric paste. fore, inducing smaller variations in the density and area ratio.
H2O2 can be easily decomposed to water and oxygen gas, the latter Similar behaviour was reported earlier for foamy GPs (Vaou and
initially generating very small bubbles (with low H2O2 content), Panias, 2010).
that expand due to the pressure exerted by the geopolymeric paste. The degree of porosity is expected to control the thermal con-
The increase of H2O2 concentration increases the amount of oxygen ductivity and compression strength of the GPs (Kamseu et al., 2015;
Masi et al., 2014). Indeed, both parameters strongly decrease as the
content of hydrogen peroxide rises, as shown in Fig. 11. These re-
sults show that thermal conductivity can be controlled by the
porosity level, and therefore can be tuned considering the appli-
cation envisioned.
A comparison between low thermal conductivity materials and
the lowest thermal conductivity fly asheGPs here reported (pre-
pared with 1.2 wt.% H2O2) is presented in Table 4. The thermal
conductivity of this porous fly asheGP is higher than those of
mineral wool and cork board, yet similar to that of aerated concrete
and expanded clay, and smaller than gypsum plasterboard and
wood fibre board. Indeed these novel fly asheGPs outperform the
common materials used for partition walls, exhibiting lower ther-
mal conductivity and apparent density and higher compressive
strength.
Low thermal conductivity geopolymers have been reported
earlier (Vaou and Panias, 2010), still the incorporation of wastes, as
reported here, is an environmental friendlier approach.
Fig. 4. XRD patterns of fly ashegeopolymers produced with distinct pore forming Fig. 12 shows the thermogravimetric and differential thermal
agent content. analysis curves for a fly-ash GP produced with 1.2 wt.% hydrogen
 R.M. Novais et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 119 (2016) 99e107 103

Fig. 5. SEM micrographs and EDS spectrum of fly ashegeopolymers produced with 0.9 wt.% (a and b) and 1.2 wt.% (c and d) of hydrogen peroxide.

peroxide. The endothermic peak observed below 200  C corre- The fly asheGP production cost was estimated to further assess
sponds to the removal of physically adsorbed water from the GP. their potential as thermal insulating materials. Table 5 presents the
The inorganic nature of the fly asheGP is demonstrated by the raw materials cost. The average market prices were collected from
absence of exothermic peaks, which is an advantage over organic McLellan et al. (2011), still these values should be considered as a
TIMs such as extruded polystyrene (XPS). Additionally, the rough estimation due to the large prices fluctuation. A comparison
maximum operating temperature (up to 1000  C) (Cheng and Chiu, between the production cost of common low thermal conductivity
2003; Xu et al., 2010) largely exceeds those of organic materials, materials and the lowest thermal conductivity fly asheGPs is given
and even that of glass wool (Vaou and Panias, 2010). in Fig. 13. The cost per m3 of the fly asheGP is higher than those of
glass wool, comparable with that of expanded polystyrene and
significantly smaller than that of extruded polystyrene. Indeed
these results demonstrate that the proposed methodology is cost-
effective. Additionally the simplicity of the porous-GP production
method, which differs from other more complex procedures (Papa
et al., 2015), suggests that this technology can be easily transferred
to an industrial context.
Properties such as their non-inflammability, low cost and green
technology, and environmental contribution (incorporation of
wastes and reduction of energy loss) demonstrate that these fly
asheGPs present potential for building thermal insulation
applications.
One very important physical property of TIMs is their vapour
diffusion resistance, since it can affect their thermal conductivity.
The high water absorption values attained for the fly asheGPs can
cause problems of loss of insulation. Nevertheless, this drawback
can be overcome by the production of bi-layered GPs, constituted
Fig. 6. a) Geopolymer cylindrical specimen (22 mm diameter and 48 mm length) and
by a thin insulating low-permeable layer associated to a thick
sample cuts (used for optical microscopy characterization) produced with distinct pore
forming agent content: b) 0.03 wt.%, c) 0.15 wt.%, d) 0.30 wt.%, e) 0.90 wt.% and f) porous layer. The latter has been reported in previous in-
1.20 wt.%. vestigations (Perna  and Hanzlí cek, 2014).
104 R.M. Novais et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 119 (2016) 99e107

Fig. 7. Optical microscopy and SEM characterization of fly ashegeopolymers produced with distinct pore forming agent content: (a and f) 0.03 wt.%, (b and g) 0.15 wt.%, (c and h)
0.30 wt.%, (d and i) 0.90 wt.% and (e and j) 1.20 wt.%.

The incorporation of biomass FA in geopolymers production substitution by these ashes typically ranges between 10 and 25%
may allow the valorization of higher amounts of waste in com- (Barbosa et al., 2013). Addition of the ashes to forest soils raises
parison with their incorporation in cements. Indeed cement environmental concerns, due to their high alkalis content, and
 R.M. Novais et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 119 (2016) 99e107 105

Table 2
Optical microscopy characterization of the pores in the geopolymers prepared with H2O2 as blowing agent.

H2O2 content (wt.%) Average pore area (mm2) Total pore area/mm2 (mm2) Number of pores/mm2 Area ratio (%)

0.03 40,529 43,747 1 4.37 ± 1.31

0.15 4191 167,286 40 16.73 ± 1.69
0.30 8897 279,771 31 27.98 ± 2.26
0.90 13,705 303,545 22 30.35 ± 1.82
1.20 24,030 395,042 16 39.50 ± 4.50

Fig. 10. Apparent density and area ratio (measured by image analysis) of fly
ashegeopolymers (cured for 28 days) produced with distinct pore forming agent
Fig. 8. Cumulative area ratio of fly ashegeopolymers (cured for 28 days) produced
content.
with distinct pore forming agent content (measured by image analysis).

Table 3
Water absorption, apparent density and total porosity of geopolymers cured for 28 days.

H2O2 content (wt.%) 0.03 0.15 0.30 0.90 1.20

Water absorption (%) 31.75 ± 0.30 34.37 ± 0.07 34.05 ± 0.06 43.04 ± 0.06 50.44 ± 0.01
Apparent density (g/cm3) 1.20 ± 0.03 1.00 ± 0.05 0.79 ± 0.02 0.66 ± 0.03 0.56 ± 0.01
Total porosity (%) 41.5 51.2 61.6 67.9 72.5

therefore has limitations imposed by the European legislation. In 4. Conclusions

this sense, the management strategy here proposed may allow a
significant reduction of the environmental impact of this waste. In the present work, porous biomass fly ash-based geopolymers
with tailored thermal conductivity were produced by using

Fig. 9. Total porosity and total pore area (measured by image analysis) of fly
ashegeopolymers (cured for 28 days) produced as a function of pore forming agent Fig. 11. Thermal conductivity and compressive strength of fly ashegeopolymers pro-
content. duced with distinct pore forming agent content.
106 R.M. Novais et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 119 (2016) 99e107

Table 4
Thermophysical properties of common low thermal conductivity building materials.

Building material Apparent density Thermal conductivity Compressive Application Reference

(kg/m3) (W/m K) strength (MPa)

Aerated concrete 400e700 0.093e0.16 4 Exterior protected construction (Zhang, 2011)

Cement expanded 300e500 0.076e0.105 0.2e1.0 Heat preservation, heat insulation (Zhang, 2011)
vermiculite
Cork board 150e350 0.052e0.70 0.15e2.5 Heat Insulation (Zhang, 2011)
Expanded clay 260e500 0.085e0.160 e Sound insulation of suspended floor constructions and (Hall, 2010)
aggregate in the manufacture of masonry units.
Extruded polystyrene 20e80 0.025e0.035 e Floors, walls and roofing thermal insulation (Vaou and Panias, 2010)
Foamed concrete 300e500 0.081e0.19 0.4 Exterior protected construction (Zhang, 2011)
Foamed glass 150e300 0.070e0.092 0.12e0.14 Wall construction, heat insulation of cold storage (Zhang, 2011; Hall, 2010)
Fly ashegeopolymer 560 0.107 1.23 e e
Glass wool 13e100 0.03e0.045 e Thermal and acoustic insulation (Vaou and Panias, 2010)
Gypsum plasterboard 900 0.25 e Partition board, wall panel (ISO 10456, 2007)
Mineral wool 10e400 0.032e0.050 e External and internal insulation (Hall, 2010)
Wood fibre board 300e600 0.11e0.26 0.4e0.5 Partition board, wall panel, ceiling (Zhang, 2011)

The bold identifies the results obtained in this work.

Fig. 12. Weight loss and heat flow curves of fly ashegeopolymer prepared with
Fig. 13. Cost of common low thermal conductivity materials per unit volume. The price
1.2 wt.% H2O2 measured by TGeDTA at a heating rate of 10  C/min.
for the extruded and expanded polystyrene and glass wool were reported by Ozel
(2012).

Table 5
Cost of raw materials used in fly ashegeopolymers production.
0.30 wt.%, where both parameters present a steeper fluctuation and
Material Cost (V/kg) Reference ii) above 0.30 wt.% where a gentler slope is observed.
Fly ash 0.033 (McLellan et al., 2011) Results demonstrate that fly ash-based GPs with appealing
Metakaolin 0.132 features can be produced. The simple and cost effective production
Sodium silicate 0.264 method, associated with their non-flammable character and high
Sodium hydroxide 0.132
thermal stability ensures economic and technical advantages over
H2O2 0.98 (Abdollahnejad et al., 2015)
conventional low thermal conductivity materials. Besides pro-
moting waste valorization by reuse of biomass fly ash, which con-
tributes towards sustainable construction.
hydrogen peroxide as pore forming agent. At the current level of
development the fly ashegeopolymers exhibit thermal conductiv-
ity as low as 0.107 W/m K, which is lower than that of typical Acknowledgements
materials used as partition boards and wall panels, such as gypsum
plasterboard and wood fibre board. Thermal conductivity can be This work was developed in the scope of the project CICECO-
simply tuned by the hydrogen peroxide content, suggesting that Aveiro Institute of Materials (Ref. FCT UID/CTM/50011/2013),
further reduction is feasible. financed by national funds through the FCT/MEC and when appli-
The content of hydrogen peroxide crucially affects the physical cable co-financed by FEDER under the PT2020 Partnership Agree-
properties (porosity, mechanical resistance and thermal conduc- ment. The authors are thankful to Dr. Alexandra Fonseca for
tivity) of the produced fly ashegeopolymers. The porosity level assistance during the thermal conductivity measurements, and Dr.
(average and total area) increases when the concentration of Robert Pullar for help with the English language.
hydrogen peroxide rises, while the apparent density, thermal
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