BioHome - Building materials for affordable housing ​made from bio-based and recycling resources

Project description

The African building industry consumes an enormous amount of wood, steel and concrete. In many Sub‑Saharan countries these construction materials are imported from non-African producers. Furthermore, there is a momentous lack of professionals in composite processing, resource flow analysis and life-cycle-assessment.

The BioHome project at the University of Hamburg faces these challenges. We aim to develope bio-based composite materials for affordable housing compartments with Sub-Saharan partner universities in a trilateral research and education program. The combination of bio-composite materials, life cycle assessment and research-driven postgraduate education shall yield valuable socioeconomic and technological advantages in Ethiopia, South Africa and Germany. BioHome aims to combine secondary resources with lignocellulosic feed-stocks, such as invasive plants, agricultural residues and burnt plantation wood.

The technology transfer to Sub-Saharan partner countries will be done through the development of appropriate technologies. The added value to waste materials will sustainably benefit the emerging recycling infrastructure in Ethiopia and South Africa. BioHome will incorporate SMEs and governmental organizations as well as expert groups by a participatory development scheme.

Objectives and/or research questions

• In combination with recycled post-consumer polymers (PE, PP, ABS, etc.), a new generation of African wood-polymer-composites (WPC) and a appropriate production technology will be developed.
• Geopolymers (e.g. fly-ash, slag) will be used as matrix material to produce geopolymer-wood-composites (GWC) with application potentials in concrete and cement construction.
• Raw materials for these composites will be analysed in terms of availability, quality and mass flow (MFA).
• Resulting products will be evaluated in life-cycle-assessments (LCA).
• The academic curriculum at the partner universities will be enriched in the fields of forest product utilization and composite technologies.
• Research and education capacities will be combined and promoted between the partner institutions in the long-term.

Partners

• Institute for Wood Science
  Universität Hamburg
  Prof. Dr. Andreas Krause

• Thünen Institute of Wood Research
  Impact of Wood Utilization on Environment and Climate
  Dr. Sebastian Rüter
  Goran Schmidt

• Stellenbosch University, South Africa
  Prof. Dr. Martina Meincken

• Addis Ababa Institute of Technology, Ethiopia
  Assoc. Prof. Dr. Esayas G/Yohannes

Duration

2017 - 2020

Funding

• Federal Ministry of Education and Research - BMBF
• German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) - DAAD

The shortened version with important information of  the project can be viewed here.