In Turkey, 2500000 tons of waste sunflower stalks happen in a year due to an important amount of sunflower production. This waste stalks being used for heating in villages. These wastes which have keeping problems, causes substantial environmental problem. The sunflower stalks usage for producing construction material was investigated by a company which specializes in construction sector.
Company developed a composite material from sunflower stalks which can be used instead of the briquette, brick, cellular concrete in the wall construction. The developed product consist of the sunflower stacks, some chemicals and sawdust.
The walls between the columns and crossbeams play a very important role under seismic load for buildings. Many country standards recommend that infill walls take into account the effect of the building static system. The developed composite material provides protection due to lightness and oscillation of the material during a possible earthquake.
The developed product weight is 20kg / m2. In this respect, it provides advantage transportation. The composite material reduce the installation period since there is no need the sand, cement and briquettes for wall construction. The visual pollution and the health problems caused by sand, cement, and briquettes are eliminated. The developed panel provides the cost advantage and the tests results show that it also has advantages in terms of the sound insulation, thermal insulation.
The composite material test are done and ready for production. The company is looking for partners through a joint venture in order to co-establish a manufacturing plant and to be able to reach new markets. With these desired partnerships, the company aims to get technical and financial assistance and support for production and marketing phase.
