Membership in C3 association, BAU 2023 and new aerogel products

We are very happy to announce that aerogel-it recently joined the Carbon Concrete Composite association. The team will be present at the BAU 2023 in München, where our 100% bio-based lignin aerogel and our biomineral aerogel will be exhibited in a carbon-reinforced concrete sandwich element on the C3 booth. A prefab element with our new aerogel products is shown in the photo below.

We strongly believe in the powerful combination of slim carbon concrete and aerogel insulation to minimize wall thickness and improve energy efficiency in use. With bio-based aerogels, embodied CO2 can be reduced strongly. With advanced modular prefab technology, as driven by C3, highly efficient construction will be possible.

Since our new bio-based aerogel products will still take some time to arrive as we are setting up financing followed by construction of our first production plant, we will soon offer other aerogel products to serve the already strong demand of our customers especially in the Construction industry – stay tuned for updates!

Photo by Mario Stelzmann/HTWK

Carbon concrete prefab element with lignin bioaerogel and biomineral aerogel by aerogel-it

Artikel über aerogel-it in der Frankfurter Rundschau

Die Frankfurter Rundschau hat am 28.03.23 online und in der Printausgabe über aerogel-it und unser biobasiertes Ligninaerogel als Superwärmedämmung berichtet. Marc, Dirk und unsere langjährige Kooperationspartnerin Prof. Dr. Irina Smirnova von der TUHH hatten die Gelegenheit mit Joachim Wille von der FR über das Thema zu sprechen.

Seit der Veröffentlichung der Förderung durch die Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt im Rahmen des Green-Startup-Programms Anfang des Jahres haben wir aus verschiedensten Richtungen eine sehr große Anzahl Anfragen erhalten. Das zeigt uns dass wir mit unseren Materialinnovationen auf dem richtigen Weg sind – hin zu mehr Energieeffizienz, CO2-Reduktion und Dekarbonisierung für verschiedenste Anwendungen. Wir freuen uns sehr über das positive Feedback.

Das Team arbeitet weiter hart daran, erste Produkte in den Markt zu bringen. Es ist kein leichter Weg als Startup mit Materialfokus in Deutschland. Aber wir sind mit unserem Team und der mehr als zehnjährigen Vorerfahrung gut aufgestellt und sehen ein riesiges Potential im Bereich Aerogele.

Aerogel-it and Fibenol Collaborate for Sustainable Superinsulation

With the aim of taking the worldwide first lignin-based bioaerogels developed by aerogel-it to the next level, aerogel-it and Fibenol have collaborated to use the Fibenol biomaterial LIGNOVA as a highly sustainable raw material.

Joining forces with Fibenol has enabled aerogel-it to design a bioaerogel based on a new generation of lignin now produced by Fibenol directly from biomass. Like established silica aerogel products, lignin bioaerogel provides superinsulation properties and reduces the heat transfer within the tiny nanometer-sized pores compared to conventional insulation materials. Lignin bioaerogel has a significantly reduced CO2 impact of up to 95% while being 100% bio-based. aerogel-it has undertaken research and development efforts to ensure the sustainability of their products by utilizing raw materials from local natural and non-food sources.

The collaboration of aerogel-it and Fibenol is setting a great example for other companies to use biomaterials in their value chain. Though the collaboration is still in its early stages and further research and development is needed, this is a major stride forward for the industry. The use of these biomaterials can result in more sustainable products with improved thermal insulation properties and reduced CO2 impact. Companies should strive to utilize as much biomaterial as possible without compromising on product quality and sustainability. By using these biomaterials in their value chain, companies can reduce their environmental footprint and positively contribute to the green revolution.

About Fibenol: Fibenol implements new cutting-edge technology to produce bio-based raw materials like lignin, wood sugars, and specialty cellulose from wood residues. Fibenol’s innovative fractionation process converts more than 90% of woody biomass into high-value materials with minimal environmental impact. These sustainable bio-based materials can be used as replacements for fossil-based chemicals to produce cosmetics, plastics, construction materials, and many other products. Fibenol is pioneering groundbreaking solutions to enable industries to transition away from fossil resources and move towards a more sustainable future.

More information: www.fibenol.com

Follow us on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/Fibenol

About aerogel-it: aerogel-it is a German company that specializes in the development, manufacturing and scaling of aerogel materials. The company focusses mainly on bio-based product lines for thermal insulation but also other applications in the Pharma, Medical Care and Cosmetics sectors. aerogel-it utilizes innovative technology to create a variety of aerogel materials with superior thermal insulation properties. They strive to produce the highest performing aerogel materials – inspired by nature. At the same time aerogel-it leverages its globally leading aerogel manufacturing know-how to design next-generation production processes leading to lower aerogel cost – an important factor for their widespread acceptance.

More information: www.aerogel-it.de

Follow us on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/aerogel-it

Förderung durch Deutsche Bundestiftung Umwelt

Wir freuen uns sehr, mitteilen zu können, dass wir eine Förderung der Deutschen Bundesstiftung Umwelt (DBU) als Teil des Green-Startup-Programms erhalten!

Die DBU unterstützt unsere Mission, nachhaltige Hochleistungswärmedämmung auf Basis von Lignin zu entwickeln und in den Markt zu bringen, um so zu Energieeffizienz und Dekarbonisierung unter anderem im Gebäudesektor beizutragen.

Das Team von aerogel-it freut sich riesig über diese Anerkennung, die €125.000 Förderung sowie die fachliche Begleitung durch die DBU-Kollegen umfasst.

Details sind in der Pressemitteilung der DBU hier zu finden.

Supported by DBU

Five years of SLENTITE® interior insulation in a historical building – a recap

After 5 years, Marc and Dirk recently visited their first SLENTITE® interior insulation project to see how the polyurethane aerogel material had performed as insulation material in a historical building over this time.

The owners had renovated a historical brick villa in Hamburg and had chosen to tackle several challenges with the thin SLENTITE® boards: the narrow spaces behind the original radiators and in the window reveals as well as several walls in the basement (see photos).

Marc and Dirk were delighted to hear that the water vapor-diffusive aerogel improved the room (sensation) climate considerably. And the owners were very happy since they could reduce the heating energy consumption!

As had been predicted by buildings physics experts, SLENTITE had worked perfectly – the most powerful, space-saving and easy to install solution for interior insulation and energetic retrofit currently available! Check out our application guide here.

#energyefficiency #insulationmaterials #historicalbuildings

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Greener Manufacturing Show and lignin bioaerogel board

Our core team members Marc, Alberto, Raman and Dirk had two great days at the The Greener Manufacturing Show in Cologne. It is amazing to see how many companies are moving in the direction of sustainable raw materials, products, packaging and IT tools! We had interesting conversations with many of them such as traceless materials, Fibenol, Stora Enso, Landpack GmbH, Alginor ASA or MetGen just to name a few.

The team also brought a demonstrator of our 100% bio-based lignin aerogel as a compressed board with a record-breaking thermal conductivity of 17 mW/(m*K) – a result we are very proud of. After such a short time in R&D the material already shows a thermal insulation performance better than our polyurethane aerogel SLENTITE which it took us years to develop during our time at BASF. We will present more details in a separate post.

In addition to visiting the fair, we held an offsite meeting to recap the steps and achievements of the last months and to plan our strategy and the next steps to bring our bioaerogels to the market in order to push much-needed decarbonization and energy efficiency.

aerogel-it at Greener Manufacturing Show

Biomineral silica aerogel in the CUBE, the worldwide first carbon-reinforced concrete building

We recently wrote about SLENTITE and its use in the CUBE in Dresden. The CUBE is the worldwide first building built entirely with carbon-reinforced concrete to demonstrate the strengths of this new construction technology.

Now we are happy to share that also our new biomineral silica aerogel is undergoing real-life testing in a wall section of the CUBE. With the monitoring data we will be able to further improve our product for the Construction industry.

Aerogel thermal insulation frees up valuable space in buildings and enables energy-efficient construction solutions. In combination, thin carbon-reinforced concrete façade elements and superinsulating aerogel make thinnest and energy-efficient construction possible.

HTWK Leipzig/ Mario Stelzmann

aerogel-it at Aerogel Seminar 2022

We are very grateful that we could share our aerogel-it vision on lignin bioaerogels for decarbonization with the global aerogel community during the 2022 edition of the International Seminar On Aerogels at TUHH. A big thank you to the organizers for this chance!

It was an excellent conference with participants from all over the world. We enjoyed a fascinating talk by Stephanie Vivod from NASA on polyimide aerogels as tough materials for space applications! As usual, Aerogel Technologies gave amazing talks with beautiful slides – glad to see they are advancing with their scale-up activities. Lots of interesting contributions from the TUHH group of Irina Smirnova, the TU Dresden group of Alexander Eychmüller and the team of Barbara Milow at the DLR. Many interesting samples to see and, also important, to touch like the carbon aerogels for EV battery electrodes made by aerogel veteran Nick Leventis now working at Aspen Aerogels. And of course the beautiful silica aerogel art by Prof. J. Michalou(di)s which also made its way into jewelry like the Goutte de Ciel by Boucheron.

And above all it was really nice to see so many members of our aerogel family again in person after so many years (and to have beers with some of them)! We had good discussions on aerogel science during the days and over dinner, and while we are advancing our understanding it also became clear that there is still a lot about these materials at the boundary of liquid and solid we do not know – more research waiting to be done.

SLENTITE® available on buyaerogel.com

Previously, obtaining SLENTITE® in smaller quantities was difficult. As of October 2022 this changes!

buyaerogel.com and aerogel-it now cooperate to bring SLENTITE® to the buyaerogel.com platform, where a large range of aerogel materials from all over the world are available.

If you are interested in single SLENTITE® boards or also smaller tiles, head on over to the shop.

SLENTITE polyurethane aerogel board

The first superinsulating lignin aerogel – 100% bio-based

We are excited to present the first superinsulating lignin aerogel – 100% bio-based and renewable!

If you are interested to learn more about our aerogel come to see us at the Hamburg Innovation Summit on June 2nd in Hamburg – or contact us.

Lignin is a major component of trees and responsible for their strength amongst other functions. We convert lignin to a high-performance material using our IP-protected technology. This is one of our clean tech contributions to the urgent decarbonization need across various industries.

Our lignin aerogel is producible at large scale. We are currently acquiring investment for our first aerogel production plant to serve our customers ASAP!

Making aerogels out of lignin has been a tough objective in aerogel R&D. We have come a long way with our TUHH colleagues since we started our aerogel journey at BASF. Thanks to everyone!

Our 100% bio-based superinsulating lignin aerogel.