Societal demand of circular bioeconomy is reflected by the need for sustainable materials produced by green processing routes.

In addition, scarce raw materials availability linked to the current geo-political situation has led to a growing interest in the reusing, recycling and upcycling of biomass.

The field of insulating materials represents a potential opportunity for the proper upcycling of biomass waste. Current state of the art materials show some sustainability and safety issues related to the use of petrol-derived solutions with dangerous flammable characteristics. 

The intrinsic flammable characteristic of natural fibers, and employed binders, makes them extremely dangerous from the safety point of view. Thus, the field of green materials is in need for an innovative breakthrough capable of overcoming the limitations of the state of the art and address the development of high performing and easy to upscale materials.

The GAIA project addresses this challenge by exploiting the potentialities of a novel approach recently developed by the principal investigator for the production of green biobased lightweight materials from layer-by-layer functionalized natural fibers.

Lignocellulosic waste is selected as a source for natural fibers. Electrostatic complexation of bio-based components is used a green approach to material development. These materials will combine high mechanical strength, excellent thermal stability and flame retardancy thanks to the achieved control over the nano and micro structure. Low impact and easy to upscale panel production processes will be developed.