Improved Manufacturability and Throughput of Ultra-Transparent, Super-Insulating Aerogels

C56-20c-273094Windows lose more than $20 billion dollars of energy each winter in the US, which drives regulatory bodies like EnergyStar to become more and more restrictive on window insulation requirements. New EnergyStar 7.0 regulations cannot be met with traditional products like double-pane windows. This creates a challenge for manufacturers who have to choose whether to switch to thicker, heavier, and more expensive triple-pane windows (which can require significant retooling and capital expenses to update existing manufacturing lines) or to incorporate new technologies that improve double-pane windows (like AeroShield’s ultra-clear aerogel). At AeroShield Materials, we are developing an ultra-clear aerogel (a super-insulating porous material) that provides next-generation insulation performance. By placing a sheet of AeroShield’s silica aerogel between two panes of glass to create an aerogel double-pane window, we can achieve a center- of-glass U-factor as low as of 0.11 BTU/h/ft2/F. Just 1/8th inch of aerogel enables a product 50% more insulating than gas-filled double-pane windows, reaching performance that beats triple-pane products. The unique blend of high clarity and insulation allows AeroShield’s product to impact a commodity market like windows if we can achieve adequately low manufacturing costs. In this Phase I proposal, AeroShield will conduct R&D on each step of our manufacturing process to reduce the labor, energy, time, and cost of production. We are targeting a 4x-8x improvement in manufacturing throughput and a 49-54% reduction in manufacturing cost over our existing process. With these Phase I manufacturing targets, the cost of adding AeroShield to a double-pane unit will be a fraction of that costs to switch to triple-pane windows. Our models show that we can be 5x cheaper than triple-panes, and that this price could enable adoption of cost-effective windows that would lead to energy savings of 1.2 quadrillion BTUs by 2030. This work will also help enable other potential markets that have huge potential energy savings and green-house-gas reductions if transparent insulation were cost-effective, such as transparent doors for refrigeration and ovens, low- concentration solar thermal receivers for industrial process heat, and green-house agriculture.