American Journal of Engineering Research (AJER) 2016 American Journal of Engineering Research (AJER) e-ISSN: 2320-0847 p-ISSN : 2320-0936 Volume-5, Issue-8, pp-249-255 www.ajer.org Research Paper Open Access www.ajer.org Page 249 A Comparison of Banana Fiber Insulation with Biodegradable Fibrous Thermal Insulation Krishpersad Manohar Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago ABSTRACT: Environmental concern about the disposal of discarded thermal insulation focused research in developing new and innovative biodegradable materials to facilitate and improve the thermal demands of society. Banana fiber is a lignocellulose material derived from the discarded tree trunk and can be a cheap, abundantly available, reliable, biodegradable and renewable raw material source. Thermal conductivity measurements on 50.4 mm thick slab-like banana fiber specimens showed characteristics consistent with that of fibrous thermal insulation. An empirical correlation developed to predict the apparent thermal conductivity variation with density and mean test temperature showed values within 4% of the experimental results. Comparison of the thermal conductivity at 25 o C and at the optimum density for coconut fiber, sugarcane fiber and oil palm fiber with banana fiber indicated that they were all within the range of 0.02 W/m.K to 0.06 W/m.K for use as building thermal insulation. Of the four lignocellulose materials considered, banana fiber showed the lowest thermal conductivity value of 0.04415 W/m.K at a density of 70.4 kg/m 3 compared to 0.0488 W/m.K at a density of 69.57 kg/m 3 for coconut fiber, 0.0483 W/m.K at a density of 95.94 kg/m 3 for sugarcane fiber and 0.0572 W/m.K at a density of 100.30 kg/m 3 for oil palm fiber. Keywords: Banana fiber, biodegradable insulation, building insulation, renewableinsulation, thermal conductivity. I. INTRODUCTION The primary function of building thermal insulation is to reduce unwanted heat gain or heat loss across the building envelope thereby contributing to the thermal comfort of the occupants. The reduction in heat gain is reflected in the reduced energy demand for cooling or heating in buildings which translates into reduced greenhouse gas emissions [1]. Generally, building thermal insulation are materials with low thermal conductivity within the range 0.02 W/m.K to 0.06 W/m.K [2]. Loose-fill fibrous materials that traps air within the pores are generally used for thermal insulation as it provides a low apparent thermal conductivity at a relatively low density [3, 4]. In the recent past, growing environmental concern focused research in developing new and innovative biodegradable thermal insulation to facilitate and improve the thermal demands of society. The lignocellulose composition of plant fiber has the structure and properties for use as composite textile material and in the manufacture of pulp and paper. Also, plant based fibrous waste are used to produce fuel, chemicals, enzymes and animal food. Approximately 2 x 10 11 tons of plant base lignocellulose are produced every year compared to 1.5 x 10 8 of polymer fiber [5]. This material source is renewable annually, abundantly available, presently is of little value and can be a cheap raw material source for downstream industries [6].Published work indicated that materials such as coconut fiber, sugarcane fiber, cotton, wheat straw, date palm leaves, oil palm fiber and other lignocellulose fibers are promising alternatives for use as biodegradable, renewable, environmentally friendly building thermal insulation [7, 8, 9]. Development of biodegradable thermal insulation to perform comparable to the non-biodegradable insulation will mitigate the environmental issues presently faced. Banana is a tropical plant and is one of the most common fruit grown and is among one of the most eaten fruit in the world [10]. The banana tree trunk is a soft leaf-like material, high in fibrous content. In the banana tree the long fibers represent approximately 1.5% by total mass of the plant [11, 12]. After removing the bananas, the leaves and trunk is discarded. In the commercial production of bananas, the large number of trees incur extra cost to the farmer for disposal since only a limited amount of the tree can be used in the plantations as organic fertilizer 4 . Research on the thermal insulating properties of plant base lignocellulose materials such as coconut