Fundamental Challenges in the Industrial Production and Application of Nanostructured Aerogel Materials

Transcription

1 Fundamental Challenges in the Industrial Production and Application of Nanostructured Aerogel Materials George L. Gould Director, Research and Development Aspen Aerogels Incorporated 1

2 Background and Societal Impact Energy supply management is the number one problem facing humanity Richard Smalley, Humanity s Top 10 Problems Conserving energy by improving thermal management will help solution development to other top problems Insulation performance is key in thermal management and system efficiency >2x 8x improvement in cost effective, commercially available insulation performance will be enabling Aerogel PUF Smalley s Top 10 Problems: 1. Energy 2. Water 3. Food 4. Environment 5. Poverty 6. Terrorism/War 7. Disease 8. Education 9. Democracy 10. Population Insulated pipe in pipe cross sections used in deep sea oil production 2

3 Societal Impact of Inefficient Thermal Design/System Performance Monetary losses due to wasted energy Increased operating expenses mean lost profit Diminished contributions to society (reinvestment, taxes, employment, opportunity losses) Pressure on energy supply Most rapidly expanding economies tend to have least mature regulations for efficiency Inefficiency leads to accelerated competition for supply prices increase, standard of living suffers Negative Environmental Impact Greenhouse gas emissions accelerated Pressure to encroach on resources/spaces for production purposes (coal, oil, gas, biofuels, wind, etc) Typical IR thermal image of an industrial steam pipe delivery system (Air Liquide) 3

4 Impact of Commercializing Aerogel Insulation Energy Supply Deepwater Oil Exploration LNG transportation Energy Demand Energy conservation Improved efficiency (lighter, thinner) Innovation Oil and Gas Exploration Enabling new technologies, products Passive thermal designs simpler systems Energy Conservation Solving thermal challenges defense, science, exploration 4

5 Technical Principles Aerogels are open-celled, nanoporous insulators Aerogel nanopores are smaller (r avg ~ 10 nm) than the mean free path of interstitial gas molecules Thermal conductivity λ tot = λ solid + λ gas + λ rad + λ conv Knudsen diffusion regime for gas/heat transport Aerogel (12 mw/m-k at 1 bar and RT) is a better insulator than still air (ca. 26 mw/m-k) Aerogels are the most effective thermally insulating solids known Discovered in 1931 (S. Kistler), aerogels have only recently been commercialized at any appreciable scale 5

6 200 nm Aerogel Morphology Volume of structure is typically 95-97% air Clusters of clusters of clusters: fractal morphology Pure silica aerogels are brittle; additives can enhance toughness Fiber (Go to for more information) 6

7 Thermal Conductivity, k (mw/m-k) Mean Temperature ( F) Pyrogel is super-hydrophobic Water droplet with contact angle >150 Expanded Perlite Mineral Wool Calsil Flexible Micro- 0.4 Polyisocyanurate (IV) FG porous silica 40 Polystyrene (XIII) Cellular 0.2 Glass Pyrogel Spaceloft 0.1 Cryogel Mean Temperature ( C) Thermal Conductivity, k (Btu-in/hr-ft 2 - F) 7

8 Insulating overwrap: Value of energy savings is significant Immediate Benefit 132 Btu 139 F hr-ft Water vapor escapes 126 F Damaged Insulation 206 Btu hr-ft 162 F 6 x 2 Fibrous Insulation on 125 psi Steam Pipe (344 F) Field proven to be a fast and cost-effective repair 89 Btu hr-ft Long Term Benefit Assumed Conditions: 90 F, no wind, ε = 0.13 Minwool TC tripled when wet 8

9 Barriers Scaling up cost effective, practical aerogel insulation form factor for commercial markets Supercritical Fluid Autoclaves Aspen Aerogels has > 80 million ft2/yr production capacity Form factor allows for both high throughput manufacturing and fast/easy installation in the field Beyond early adopters typical materials acceptance timeline is lengthy in commercial projects: AWARENESS, QUALIFICATION, SPECIFICATION, ADOPTION Risk aversion: insulation is usually critical and inexpensive: how often do engineers get fired for designing and/or building systems that work Education gap on properties/case studies Illustrations of aerogel materials enabling new technologies, improved designs are scarce today in the public domain Structure/property relationships of amorphous nanomaterials are not well understood and are not easily predicted 9

10 Recommendations 1. Engineering Community: aerogels are now commercially available products with tremendous thermal properties AWARENESS 2. Educators: become familiar with aerogel materials and properties through research and help pass on the knowledge to the next generations of scientists, engineers, and designers AWARENESS 3. Thermal system designers: consider aerogel blanket materials as one of many potential insulation solutions AWARENESS 4. Government agencies: increase support and incentives for saving energy, improving efficiency, and provide matching $ for qualifying new/improved thermal insulation materials QUALIFICATION 5. Manufacturers: get aerogel insulation performance specifications in place at testing societies (e.g. ASTM) and at end-users SPECIFICATION 6. Legislators: modify regulations to discourage inefficiency, energy waste, and greenhouse gas emissions SPECIFICATION 7. Business leaders: calculate total installed costs and OPEX savings for improving thermal insulation for return on investment ADOPTION 10