Pilot plant up-scaling of tannin foams

In the last years many studies were led to characterise and optimise the tannin-furanic foams. In the present work the up-scaling of the production from laboratory to industrial scale is discussed. The tannin foams produced in an industrial pilot plant have shown comparable properties with the laboratory-produced foams. In particular the panels manufactured in the continuous press presented slightly higher bulk densities of around 176 kg/m3 (+20%) which led to higher mechanical properties and thermal conductivities. The up-scaled tannin foams of around 150 kg/m3 presented 20-25% enhanced compression resistances (28 MPa) and thermal conductivities (55 mW/m×K). Lightweight sandwich panels with various side layers were produced directly in the press, without the need of external adhesives. From the marketing viewing angle, the up-scaled tannin foams show higher densities than the other commercial synthetic insulation materials but the mechanical and insulating performances observed are pr...