Archive for year: 2026

Recently, Dirk had the opportunity to give a talk on aerogel materials at Hochschule Osnabrück. This talk was part of the lecture series “Materials in Future Technologies” by Prof. Dr. Markus Susoff and Prof. Dr. Svea Petersen. 👩‍🎓👨‍🎓

It doesn’t happen often that the team can step out of the day-to-day work to talk about what we do. And it was a real pleasure for Dirk to take this time to share with a group of master students what makes aerogels such a fascinating class of materials.

The focus of this session which also included polymer foams and other materials was energy efficiency. This is a field that aerogels as excellent thermal insulators feel right at home in. From heat shields for electric vehicle batteries to energy-efficient building renovation, aerogels are already enabling real-world solutions. But beyond that there is much more – including completely new applications and aerogel materials such as biomineral silica aerogels and bioaerogels that we as aerogel-it are working on.

What stood out most, though, was the reminder of how fortunate we as aerogel-it are: working every day on such an advanced technology we truly believe in. And pushing the boundaries every day with the great team that we as a company have grown into. Our passion for aerogels has kept us going for more than a decade. And there is still so much to explore and value to create.

Looking forward to what the next decades will bring!

The buildings in Europe are an energy problem — and at the same time a huge opportunity. 75% of the existing building stock is considered energy inefficient. At the same time, EPBD regulations, the EU taxonomy, and rising financing costs are increasing the pressure on property owners.

Energy-efficient renovation is no longer optional. It has become a necessity — both ecologically and economically.

External insulation (EIFS or ETICS) is the most wide-spread solution. But what happens when external insulation is not possible?

When the façade is off-limits

❌ Heritage protection.

❌ Limited property boundaries.

❌ Complex ownership structures in multi-unit buildings

In practice, energy optimization often fails because of the building envelope.

This is where interior insulation comes into play. For a long time, however, it had a difficult reputation:

⚠️ Interventions in living spaces

⚠️ Loss of usable floor area

⚠️ Building physics risks such as condensation and mold

But modern materials such as aerogels are changing the rules of the game.

Aerogel: Maximum performance with minimal thickness

Aerogels are among the most advanced insulation materials in the world. With their extremely low thermal conductivity, they allow significantly thinner insulation layers while delivering the same — or even better — performance than conventional materials.

In practical terms, this means:

✅ Less loss of interior space

✅ High energy efficiency even with just 1–2 cm of insulation

✅ Significantly reduced heat loss

✅ Better compatibility with sensitive building structures

When it comes to interior insulation, every centimeter matters. The first millimeters deliver the largest effect — and this is exactly where aerogels excel.

Three solution approaches for different requirements

Aerogel insulating render

Ideal for uneven substrates and heritage buildings. Aerogel insulation render is easy and fast to apply e.g. using render spraying machines and highly effective. This is why it is becoming a very popular solution for energetic renovation. We are developing solutions based on our highly innovative biomineral silica aerogel. Recent pilot tests were positive.

Polymer aerogel panels

Our polyurethane aerogel SLENTITE is robust, easy to handle, and capillary-active — particularly suitable for demanding detail areas such as window reveals. A wide range of projects have benefitted from the problem-solving power of SLENTITE.

Silica aerogel solutions

Silica aerogel blankets such as Oryza BGT have extremely low thermal conductivity, hydrophobic properties, and the highest fire protection class — especially effective in multilayer constructions. Silica aerogel blankets can be used as is or as multilayer boards.

If you would like to discuss the right solution for your project, please get in touch with us.

Renovation as a value strategy

Buildings that remain unrenovated increasingly risk declining asset values and higher financing costs.

Energy-efficient renovation is therefore not only about climate protection — it is also about portfolio management.

Interior insulation with high-performance materials opens up new opportunities for buildings that were previously considered difficult to renovate.

The existing European building stock represents the largest energy efficiency project of our time.

And the technology to achieve it is already available.

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Last week Marc and Dirk took part in the joint Winter Workshop of the EASI ZERo and INBUILT Projects at the Leipfinger-Bader site in Pfeffenhausen close to Munich. It was an important milestone for the aerogel-it team.

The main focus for the team was aerogel insulation render. This product class is becoming one of the more important aerogel applications. This is because it brings benefits for energetic renovation of the old European building stock, especially heritage buildings. There is a huge amount of buildings that need to be energetically renovated.

Large-scale testing including an EOTA wall and showcase prefab modules had been done as part of the EASI ZERo project e.g. by Juergen Frick of University of Stuttgart. We had provided pilot quantities of our next-generation biomineral silica aerogel. The Sievert SE team around Dr. Tina Oertel and Franziska Endres then used our material to develop an aerogel render formulation. And the results the project team obtained with our aerogel were positive – which of course made the aerogel-it team very happy.

Plus, it was the first time that the team could actually see and touch the materials. The aerogel insulation render formed part of two impressive showcase modules that had been built at the Leipfinger-Bader site as part of the project (see photo).

A big thank you to the Sievert team for inviting the aerogel-it team to the meeting. It has been a great collaboration.

Visiting Leipfinger-Bader

Also, a big thank you to the Leipfinger-Bader team around Simon Eibl and colleagues for being such great hosts. We were shown around the manufacturing areas of window shutter cases and new clay interior panels. Especially for manufacturing of clay panels, the team had done an impressive job of setting up a first production. These panels are an exciting product with lots of intelligent details. The newly developed prefab living modules were also very interesting to see. The modules are fast to move and install for quick and easy setup of living and office spaces.

Osnabrück very present

Funny detail: Three institutions from Osnabrück were present in and around the meeting: Sievert, aerogel-it – and right across the road and well visible from the meeting room was a gas station of Q1 Energie AG (see photo). The team certainly did not expect to see so much Osnabrück concentrated in far-away Pfeffenhausen in Bavaria.