AEROCOINs, a FP7 project managed by Tecnalia Research and Innovation, plans to formulate a novel super-insulating material by eliminating the two significant barriers that prevent the extensive utilization of silica aerogel as super-insulation components in the buildings and construction industry.
Silica aerogel’s inferior mechanical properties and its high production cost are the two obstacles. It is a lightweight solid and a nanostructured amorphous material with porosities greater than 90% and having pore sizes in the range of 4-20 nm. This makes it a material with the lowest thermal conductivity (l < 0.012 W m-1 K-1) under ambient conditions.
AEROCOINs, a €4.3-million European project, will extend for four years. The European Union funds €3 million for the project under the Seventh Framework Programme for Cooperation. The consortium consists of a well-known France-based SME, SEPAREX, two large firms, Spain-based ACCIONA INFRAESTRUCTURAS and France-based PCAS, Poland-based university partner TUL University, and five technology centers, Germany-based ZAE Bayern, Finland-based VTT, Switzerland-based EMPA, France-based ARMINES/MINES ParisTech and Spain-based TECNALIA.
The AEROCOINs project plans to combine nanotechnology and sol-gel chemistry for the development of unique super-insulating aerogel materials. An aerogel-based insulator’s thickness can be one-half the thickness of a traditional commercial insulator to obtain the equivalent performance of the thermal insulation in a building. Thus, substituting a standard insulation with an aerogel material of the same thickness will result in a better energy-efficient building that decreases the quantity of energy consumption by cooling and heating systems. This will decrease the overall demand for energy and greenhouse gas emissions.
Source: http://www.basqueresearch.com