Organic waste as absorbent materials

The food industry generates a large amount of easily controlled organic waste, both in the production and supply phases, which can be reused for various purposes. The responsible management of this type of organic waste is giving rise to initiatives for its reuse, such as energy production or its transformation into construction materials. The construction industry is one of the largest users of raw materials, and the use of this type of waste material can lead to more responsible management of the available resources. One of the uses with the greatest potential of this type of waste in the construction sector is that of acoustic insulation or absorbent materials. In the present work, the values of the acoustic absorption coefficients of three materials generated from organic residues of cocoa, corn, and sugar cane are reported. These materials were first oven dried, and then triturated to get a disaggregated material. These residues were used as a base material for the construction of circular samples to conduct the experiment, with the aim that the materials generated can be used in absorbent acoustic panels. The impedance tube was used to determine the sound absorption coefficients. The results indicate that the materials have good absorption at medium and high frequencies, given their porous characteristics.