Last week, the aerogel-it team could celebrate reaching several milestones: Alberto has single-handedly achieved production of 1000 liters of cellulose aerogel beads at pilot scale using our pilot plant at Hamburg University of Technology!
Why is this important to us?
1️⃣ It is likely the largest quantity of bioaerogel ever produced. Alberto may very well have achieved a world record – especially since he did it completely on his own!
2️⃣ Much of the cellulose bioaerogel is required for our BIOVIPWALL project as part of the iclimabuilt (an EC Horizon Europe project). It will be converted to bioaerogel vacuum insulation panels (VIPs) by our partner va-Q-tec. Some bioaerogel VIPs will undergo testing by the project partners, and most will be integrated into carbon-reinforced sandwich elements. With this, we want to demonstrate one of the slimmest wall designs possible while using bio-based superinsulation!
3️⃣ The cellulose bioaerogel is also relevant for bioaerogel VIPs in new, more lightweight logistics solutions as well as greener cooling appliances (replacing for example fumed silica).
4️⃣ Based on the learnings he made, Alberto could validate and further improve his process concepts and equipment designs. This is highly important for scaling to our first large production plant. What is most amazing: Almost all of his designs work exactly as he planned.
It seems hard to believe that a year ago we could only produce a couple of liters at a time in the lab. Now we have reached a whole different level and have produced cellulose aerogel at pilot scale. We will be able to serve our customers with much needed pilot-scale quantities for their testing and showcases.
