Discovering Natural Fiber-Insulation Boards and Natural Adhesives, Focused on a Polylactic Acid (PLA) Application - a Review

In recent decades, there has been a growing concern about the excessive consumption on petroleum-based sources. Scientists are now focused on increasing the utilization of natural and renewable sources instead of nonrenewable ones to produce safety and environmentally friendly products. Their aim is to maintain and enhance product performance while also keeping production costs in check. Within this framework, natural-fiber insulation boards emerge as a trending topic and consequently, also the use of natural adhesives to supply them and reach an entirely friendly-environment product. Natural-fiber insulation material performance is typically evaluated by its mechanical and physical properties. Among them are bending, compression, tensile strength, density, water absorption, and thermal conductivity. Throughout the cited literature, a diversity of vegetal-origin fibers, especially wood-fibers and natural adhesive sources like lignin, tannins, and proteins for insulation materials has been found, which are constantly improved in order to reach a superior production scale. This work provides a summary of research that focuses on natural fiber insulation products as well as natural adhesives, pointing to Polylactic Acid (PLA).