Scale-up of aerogel manufacturing plant for industrial production

Abstract

The special characteristics of aerogels in terms of lightweight, porous and super-insulation recommends their application in the area of building and construction. The definition of super-insulation states better insulation behavior than air. The thermal conductivity of conventional insulation products such as EPS or mineral wool are typically in the range of 30-50 mW/(m⋅K). In comparison, silica aerogels are characterized by a thermal conductivity of 12-20 mW/(m⋅K) and cellulose aerogels by a thermal conductivity of 15-20 mW/(m⋅K). This low thermal conductivity, which results from the interplay of air-filled pores and skeletal backbone, enables a more efficient and flexible application as insulation material for nearly zero energy buildings (nZEB). The limiting factor for the actual application of aerogels in an industrial scale, is currently the aerogel production. Furthermore, the supply chains of aerogels are not yet established enough to enable widespread market application. Within this work, a scale-up of the aerogel production line is performed to reduce production costs for broader market uptake. The overall scale-up includes the scale-up of each manufacturing step: gelation, solvent exchange, and supercritical drying. With this, a production capability of 50 lt. of solvent exchanged particles per day and up to 2000 lt. aerogels per year are aimed. This involves a large-scale gelation and solvent exchange plant, as well as the utilization of a 64 L autoclave for the supercritical drying step with integrated software for an automated drying. In addition to the scale-up of the manufacturing plant, different approaches to applying aerogels in insulation materials are considered in this work. A key point is the development of carbon fiber reinforced textile concrete (TRC) with a sandwich core made of Cellular Lightweight Concrete (CLCi) including silica or cellulose aerogels.