Roll-to-Roll Manufacturing of Biomass Material for Sustainable Thermal Insulation Application

Abstract Environmental pollution and increased greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions due to reliance on fossil fuels-based products are becoming major causes to global warming. Transitioning to renewable resources such as biomass offers a solution to reduce GHG emissions. Biomass is a renewable, biodegradable resource derived from agricultural residues and wastes, with significant potential as an environmentally friendly feedstock for advanced manufacturing. Their unique properties, such as low thermal conductivity and low density, make them valuable for a wide range of applications, especially in building insulation. In this work, we utilize additive manufacturing (AM) to produce biomass-based insulation panels directly from wheat straw fibers, aiming to transform agricultural wastes into sustainable building materials. Despite the promising benefits, AM faces challenges in scalability and efficiency, especially for industry-scale production. This study addresses these challenges by developing a roll-to-roll printing system with an optimized slot-die nozzle design to increase process throughput. Traditional 3D printing, such as direct ink writing (DIW), typically employs a nozzle with a circular outlet, requiring material deposition along a serial path for each layer. This approach is inefficient for meeting the high throughput demands of producing large-scale insulation panels. To address these limitations, we investigate various nozzle geometries and ultimately optimize the nozzle to a slot-die shape, which improves both material deposition uniformity and printing efficiency. Additionally, we implemented a multi-nozzle configuration to enable simultaneous material deposition, significantly enhancing throughput and ensuring more consistent material deposition compared to a single nozzle system. The manifold design based on a multi-level splitter structure further supports multi-nozzle configuration by ensuring uniform material flow between the nozzles and reducing flow inconsistencies. Through iterative adjustments to both nozzle geometry and manifold alignment, we achieve an optimized balance between process efficiency and product accuracy. This approach demonstrates a sustainable pathway to transform agricultural waste into valuable environmentally friendly building materials.