Applied Research
An important function of the PHRC is to undertake or stimulate research and development on materials, products, procedures, and processes. These efforts may have a longer-term or a more fundamental focus than other projects, and they are typically completed under the supervision of the PHRC director Ali Memari. Projects in this category foster partnerships and draw on the expertise and strengths of the people and facilities available at Penn State.
Review of Using Hempcrete for Home Building as an Affordable and Sustainable Strategy
o Hempcrete has been used as an alternative to batt insulation for conventional wood frame construction. A few hempcrete contractors apply hempcrete in the form of spray or blocks around studs to create walls that can skip having drywall, OSB sheathing, air barrier and vapor barrier, and traditional siding. Elimination of these layers leads to significant cost savings. Furthermore, given the inherent properties of hempcrete in creating a highly thermally insulated wall system that is also quite airtight, it leads to significant saving on operational cost by minimizing heat loss. Added to these two important benefits, hempcrete also has a few more desirable properties such as fire-resistance, sound insulation, insect resistance, and moisture resistance. Accordingly, homes made using hempcrete can potentially offer many advantages at comparatively lower costs compared to the conventional systems. However, site-built hempcrete walls take long to dry, in particular, when lime coats are used as the interior and/or exterior finish. Therefore, there is an ongoing effort toward developing prefabricated panelized hempcrete wall systems that includes the framing, hempcrete, and optionally finish/siding layers. There is also a parallel effort toward making hempcrete blocks that are designed and developed to be load-bearing. This latter technology will not need stud framing and the hempcrete blocks are considered load bearing. While homes are being built using hempcrete, yet the general homebuilders are still not quite familiar with this technology and how best it can be incorporated in their practice. This project will review the status of hempcrete home building, the types of homes generally built, the hempcrete construction/application systems used (e.g., use of spray, block, or panelized options), and typical details for construction of walls and floors using hempcrete. The project also gives a status of R&D in the field. The result of the project will be a PHRC report and a journal paper.
