SLENTITE in the CUBE, the worldwide first carbon-reinforced concrete building

This week our co-founders Marc and Dirk visited the CUBE in Dresden, an amazing building that was recently unveiled for the first time. They were very warmly received by construction manager Matthias Tietze and public relations manager Sandra Kranich of the C³ association.

The CUBE is the worldwide first building built entirely with carbon-reinforced concrete to demonstrate the strengths of this new construction technology. Instead of steel reinforcement carbon fiber meshes are used. This enables much thinner walls since the steel reinforcement does not require thick concrete layers for protection against corrosion. Saving wall thickness saves concrete and weight, which in turn saves CO₂ from concrete production and transportation of the wall elements. Thinner walls also free up valuable space in the building.

To further optimize this, aerogel insulation has been installed for thinnest thermal insulation, and we are very happy that our SLENTITE® aerogel was chosen for the CUBE! SLENTITE® was developed by Marc and Dirk (and their colleagues) during their time at BASF. In combination, thin carbon-reinforced concrete and SLENTITE® aerogel make thinnest construction possible. As additional benefit, the robust and non-dusty SLENTITE® panels were easy to install for the C³ team. This was not the first joint use for SLENTITE® and carbon-reinforced concrete since the powerful combination had already been put to the test in the house of Matthias, along with SLENTITE® for thin floor insulation – a story we will share in a separate post.

Aerogel-it is working on new sustainable aerogel solutions, for space- and CO₂-saving construction of the future.

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aerogel-it acquires SLENTITE® technology from BASF

In 2021 BASF ended its R&D and sales activities of the polyurethane-based aerogel SLENTITE®. The product will continue to be available on the market, as the newly founded aerogel-it GmbH is taking over all activities from the beginning of 2022.

SLENTITE® is the first high-performance insulating material based on a polyurethane aerogel to be made available as a mechanically strong panel. As a pioneering product, its superfine, open-porous structure ensures highly efficient thermal insulation solutions and supports the drive towards higher energy efficiency and lower energy costs. Aerogels are highly porous materials consisting of up to 99% air, with a large internal surface area and superfine pore structures.

aerogel-it was founded 2021 in Osnabrück, Germany by former BASF employees Dr. Marc Fricke and Dr. Dirk Weinrich together with three aerogel experts from the TUHH group of Prof. Dr.-Ing. Irina Smirnova and two senior business advisors. aerogel-it researches, develops and manufactures novel aerogels such as bioaerogels based on natural raw materials, biomineral aerogels as well as next-generation aerogels based on the SLENTITE® technology. The company concentrates globally leading aerogel expertise in its founding team and partners.

Resource and energy efficiency, carbon footprints as well as product end-of-life solutions are urgent topics businesses face. This translates into a growing demand for new materials, which Aerogel-it addresses with its sustainable aerogels for numerous applications. Managing Director Dr. Marc Fricke: “We achieve outstanding combinations of properties with our aerogels based on natural raw materials. Our customers are supplied with advanced products that are employed as high-performance insulation materials or for the load and release of active substances.”

SLENTITE panel

Collaboration of Lignopure and aerogel-it

We are happy to announce that aerogel-it GmbH and Lignopure GmbH have agreed on a collaboration on the development of new materials for Biomedicine and Cosmetic applications. We are excited to push lignin as one of the most interesting green raw materials for a sustainable future!

As aerogel-it, we will bring our globally leading aerogel material and processing expertise to the table for these next-level green aerogel-based products.

The agreement was signed by CEOs Joana Gil Chavez and Marc Fricke at TUHH where both companies have had a fruitful history of academic work and industrial collaborations, thanks to Prof. Dr.-Ing. Irina Smirnova, the PhD supervisor of many co-founders of both companies.

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Joana Gil Chavez and Marc Fricke, CEOs of Lignopure GmbH and aerogel-it GmbH

Talk at Elbe-NH Webinar

At the ELBE-NH webinar this week, our CEO Marc Fricke had the chance to present our company, materials and mission in a talk along with two other great startups, Lignopure and Mushlabs – thank you!

ELBE-NH focusses on the utilization of biorefinery material streams such as lignin and sugar-containing hydrolysates.

For us as aerogel-it, materials from the biorefinery are interesting as starting materials for green aerogels – for thermal insulation or as carrier materials.

See also this article in biooekonomie.de (in German).

 

Sirius Business Park in Buxtehude

As of 01.10.21, aerogel-it rents space in a hall of the Sirius Business Park in Buxtehude! Our colleagues from the start-up Lignopure are already setting up their first production plant for lignin products there, and we are excited to have them as neighbours! Despite being a great team, their expertise and market access could lead to interesting opportunities for both companies. We plan to use the space as a workshop for R&D, for aerogel processing and for shipping and later also for production.

aerogel-it GmbH founded

Today we finally founded our company! We are happy and excited to officially start our work at our office in the ICO in Osnabrück.

aerogel-it team in front of ICO Osnabrück