The goal of a project at Germany's Freiburg Materials Research Center and the University of Freiburg is to develop hard foams from bark extract to serve as insulating material for homes, according to the university. The project, called "Biofoambark," was initiated by Prof. Dr. Marie-Pierre Laborie from the Faculty of Forest and Environmental Sciences of the University of Freiburg in February. Over the past nine months, Laborie and her research team produce the hard foams out of tannin, a compound found in tree bark that is typically left over as a waste product in the lumber industry.
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