Recycling textile waste as thermal insulations for multi-functional “building clothing”
Textile waste, often consisting of blended yarns, is difficult to recycle due to the challenges and high cost of sorting, depolymerisation, and dissolution. This project proposes collecting textile waste to develop a sustainable building envelope for thermal insulation and radiative cooling through a mass production method.
By leveraging photon engineering, nature-inspired design, and heat transfer optimization, this proposed "building clothing" demonstrates exceptional proficiency in managing building temperatures. Apart from reducing thermal conductivity, the textile-reinforced hierarchical microstructures and colorants will selectively reflect solar heat, including visible light (VIS) and near-infrared (NIR), while emitting thermal radiation within the long-wave infrared (LWIR) spectrum. Furthermore, it effectively repels water and dirt from the surface, ensuring consistent performance and robustness.
This multi-functional "building clothing," designed with multi-color aesthetics, is highly durable, lightweight, and flame-resistant, making it compatible with a variety of scenarios such as residential and factory buildings, village houses, stilt houses, substations, container apartments, curtains, canopies, and tents.
The reuse of textile waste as thermal insulation for sustainable buildings is an effective green technology that synergistically combines two crucial components in achieving carbon neutrality in Hong Kong: textile waste recycling and building energy saving. This project has received a grant of HK$2.61M from the Green Tech Fund.