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Cellulose aerogel produced at pilot scale!

Last week, the aerogel-it team could celebrate reaching several milestones. Alberto has single-handedly achieved production of 1000 liters of cellulose bioaerogel beads 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. We will be able to serve our customers with much needed pilot-scale quantities for their testing and showcases.

Alberto Bueno in front of the produced cellulose bioaerogel.

Meeting for CO2-optimized Construction for Roads and Paved Surfaces at DBU

Recently, Marc presented our aerogel-it activities and products at the meeting for CO2-optimized construction for roads and paved surfaces (CO2-optimiertes Bauen von Verkehrsflächen & Straßen). The meeting took place at the DBU Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt Umwelt in Osnabrück.

Michael Hafemann and Mark Gieseke of Gieseke Gruppe expertly moderated the event after Prof. Markus Große-Ophoff of DBU, Mark Gieseke and Prof. Dr. Prof. Dr. Heiko Meinen of Hochschule Osnabrück had kicked it off. The speakers highlighted roads and paved surfaces as very important but often overlooked lever for CO2 savings. Next to buildings they make up a large share of the built environment and cause corresponding CO2 emissions during construction and repair.

There were excellent presentations on decarbonization e.g. of bitumen and concrete by B2SQUARE and CarStorCon® Technologies. Stephan Harnischfeger of MHI Baustoff GmbH explained the challenges around asphalt emissions and low-temperature asphalt products as important solutions. ecopals, ecoLocked, HeideHanf and Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung also gave presentations. Furthermore, there were keynotes by Dr. Martins Zaumanis of EMPA and Prof. Dr. Hans-Hermann Weßelborg of FH Münster.

Aerogels also play a role for CO2-optimized construction in this field and are already being investigated for more thermal-resistant roads and paved surfaces. One example are our US colleagues from aerogel Coating Technologies (aCT Inc.).

Great discussions in the networking sessions rounded off the event. As former DBU Green Startup, we were certainly happy and thankful to have this opportunity to be back at DBU. Thank you very much to the organizers for inviting us.

Discussion round at CO2-optimiertes Bauen von Verkehrsflächen & Straßen

aerogel-it participates in BIOVIPWALL project

The aerogel-it team is very happy to be part of the BIOVIPWALL open call project funded by iClimabuilt, an EC Horizon Europe project.

Prefab sandwich wall elements are interesting for both new construction as well as for serial renovation of existing buildings as they can be mass-produced in factories. This enables leveraging standardization and automatization for higher efficiency compared to local construction on the construction site.

But currently, almost exclusively steel-reinforced concrete is used which requires minimum thickness to protect the steel reinforcement from corrosion and structural failure over time. The additional concrete for protection of the steel reinforcement leads to additional CO2 emissions during production and transportation.

When using carbon-reinforced concrete (carbon concrete) instead of conventional steel-reinforced concrete, the carbon reinforcement no longer needs to be protected against corrosion. Therefore, the concrete layer can be reduced in thickness which saves material and transport cost, reducing CO2 footprint and reducing CO2 emissions for transportation. Thinner carbon concrete elements also save valuable space in buildings.

Then thermal insulation is required for the envelope, and vacuum insulation panels (VIPs) are the highest-performing thermal insulation materials. When combined with VIPs, carbon concrete wall construction gives access to slimmest wall designs: The overall wall thickness can be reduced from ca. 40 cm to ca. 20 cm or less – or by 50% or more!

Within the BIOVIPWALL project, together with our partner va-Q-tec and the iClimabuilt service providers we will develop and test a new prefab sandwich wall system based on carbon concrete in combination with bioaerogel VIPs such as our cellulose bioaerogel. We will prepare various materials and sandwich elements for test campaigns by iClimabuilt members as well as for demonstration purposes including integration and monitoring in a building. Based on our own calculations, we expect that a substantial CO2 footprint reduction is possible. Stay tuned!

EC Horizon Europe