Exhibitor Spotlight: Econovate
We’ve got hundreds of game-changing ideas at The Eco Technology Show and each week we’ll be taking a closer look at some of these incredible concepts. First off, Econovate, a new eco-construction concept that’s taking old ideas and making them viable for 21st Century builds.
Econovates main product is the Econoblok, a construction breeze-block made out of waste paper and cardboard diverted from landfills. It’s a lightweight load-bearing structural block with a high thermal insulation all rolled-into-one product. Performing to the same standards as a standard concrete block, the products thermal and acoustic performance is actually a significant improvement compared with products currently in the global market.
The technology to make this possible is Fiber Cellulose mortar, a technology developed in the USA during the 1920's. The mixture never reached commercialisation stage due to the high cost of cellulose, although the idea was revived in the 1980s with the increment of waste paper, with several alternative groups beginning to experiment with different compositions of mixture and buildings in experimental one-off projects.
Today the excess of waste paper generated in the western world (12.3 million tonnes in UK and 47 million tonnes in USA) gives room to develop many products. In the UK 69% of the waste paper and cardboard is recovered and a 55% of this recovered paper is recycled to produce new paper. However, 1.8 million tonne of waste paper still goes to landfills and this is the raw material we are aiming to recover.
In 2003 Jose Zavala began developing a formula that could be mass produced. His inspiration came from a Paper Mill in Hemel Hempstead, the first mechanised mill in the World that began production in 1807. In 2003 the Mill allowed Jose to use their premises to begin trials and produce a prototype wall. In 2010 the Mill resumed production and now is a visitor centre.
In 2008-09 they successfully achieved a formula supported by Cambridge University and began developing the product that with help from Carbon Connection Ltd, is now being released to market. Find more information on Econovate by clicking here.
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