Utilization of Used Packaging Materials for Steam Pipes Insulation

Waste utilization is a major challenge in recent years and keeping this problem in mind waste packaging materials were utilized for steam-pipe insulation. Conventionally corrugated cardboard is used for packaging and coconut rope is used for tying packaged boxes. These two materials have low thermal conductivity; therefore they act as good thermal insulators and were used to insulate the steam pipe. Thickness of the insulating materials was decided by determining critical thickness of insulation materials. Before insulation, heat loss was found to be 122.0 W/m whereas after insulation, it was 36.32 W/m. It can be concluded from this result that three times more heat loss could be prevented by utilizing waste packaging materials as insulators. Mathematical model was developed for steady state heat transfer and simulated results showed a good match of experimental and predicted values. These findings justify the validity of the developed model and its applicability for further studies.