MMD FinnCERES: Acoustics

FinnCERES is a competence centre, jointly formed by Aalto University and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland in the area of materials bioeconomy. Its mission is to harness the natural properties of lignocellulose to create new sustainable materials.

FinnCERES programme is enabled by: Aalto University, VTT, Academy of Finland and its Flagship Programme.

FinnCERES website

Aalto webpage about FinnCERES

The Multifunctional Materials Design group is conducting research under the FinnCERES theme 'Electronics, Optics and Energy Applications'. We aim to approach the research challenges from different angles. Current research work is tightly linked to the SUBSTAINABLE project. 

Sub-theme 'Acoustics': Biowaste-derived carbon-negative materials for acoustics

The core idea of the project is to substitute current market standard insulator materials, rock and glass wool, with biowaste-based sound and thermal absorbents. As proof-of-concepts, we will develop silent air duct and silencer for air conditioning pipes that bind the carbon of biowaste to buildings for decades. The proposed research combines distinct expertise of Chemical and Acoustical Engineering and aims at paradigm shift in construction industry by demonstrating that biobased products can exceed the performance of state-of-the-art materials in multiple occasions in building materials. Industrial scalability and circular economy, with the prospect of providing urgently needed carbon-negative construction materials, are at the core of this multidisciplinary research.

Research background

Construction industry uses a lot of materials for sound and thermal insulation. Current solutions are
glass wool, made from recycled glass, and rock wool, made of rock or sand. However, the production process includes high temperatures, thus requiring a lot of energy. Our core idea is to substitute current acoustic absorption materials with biowaste-based sound absorbents to bring a carbon-negative alternative to construction industry. Our preliminary research has shown that bio-based materials exceed the performance of the market leaders both in absolute terms and normalized by density. With a few example applications we will show the capabilities of bio-based materials to foster the large-scale transition to carbon-negative solutions in construction industry.

Business potential and societal impact

As motivated in the abstract our aim is to make a paradigm shift in the construction business. Many of the current thermal and sound insulation materials can be changed to bio-based products that are carbon-negative. Currently, most of the knowledge is there, but the manufactures need convincing examples of products to understand the urgently needed change for the future. Regarding societal impact, the development of novel materials, as proposed here, and implementation of circular economy approaches should allow overcoming the sustainability problems of current market standards, glass and rock wool, as well as polyurethane foams. Considering that our materials are inherently compatible with the requirements for construction materials for Carbon Neutral Europe policy, export potential of these type of novel carbon-negative products can easily reach the scale to hundreds of millions of euros.

Contact information: 

Accountable project leader (MMD): Prof. Jaana Vapaavuori ([email protected])

Project researchers:
Marike Langhans ([email protected])

This project is a consortium project that is being implemented in collaboration with Aalto Acoustics Lab.

Virtual Acoustics research group (led by Prof. Tapio Lokki) 
Department of Signal Processing and Acoustics (School of Electrical Engineering, Aalto University)

Lumir Oy participates in the project.