D U R R A

Sustainable Benefits

LEED Certifications

Green Building

THE GREEN ALTERNATIVE TO DRYWALL
WITH 10X THE STRENGTH

Durra creates a natural construction solution from recovered agricultural by-products. Using readily available crop by-products, Durra employes a proprietary production process that applies both high heat and extreme pressure to straw, coaxing out resins that act as a bonding agent between fibers. A compressed fiber core is dry extruded, then finished on all sides with a wet-strength kraft paperboard. Durra panels contain straw, paperboard and a non-toxic PVA glue used to bond the paper liner to the straw core. No preservatives, microbicides or any other additives are used.

AN ENERGY SAVING ALTERNATIVE TO DRYWALL

According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NERL) U.S. Life-Cycle Inventory Database (http://www.nrel.gov/lci/database/), it takes 8,196 BTU/lb to manufacture gypsum board. This number actually accounts only for the natural gas used in the drying process.

By comparison, Durra strawboard panels consume approximately 328 BTU/lb to manufacture. The primary energy consuming steps are as follows:

Process	BTU/lb
Compression/Extrusion	187.6
Swathing	32.0
Baling	57.6
Loading	4.7
Transportation	45.8
Total	327.7

The Durra process uses only 4% of the energy used to manufacture gypsum board; stated another way, gypsum board uses almost 25 times more energy to manufacture!

Central City Studios