AERO-D: the next generation building insulation material

An efficient, continuous envelope insulation (e.g., wood/steel framed walls, mass walls) and mechanical system insulation (e.g., pipes, ducts) is critical to energy efficiency as dictated by ASHRAE Standard 90.1- thermal insulation standards. Insulation material popular in residential and commercial buildings, such as extruded polystyrene (XPS), expanded polystyrene (EPS), fiberglass, cellulose and mineral wool, are relatively low-cost materials with varying degrees of mechanical and material properties, installation time, and labor cost. Commonly, all these materials have low R-value/inch of 5.1 and below. As a comparison, R-value/inch of air is 5.76 at 25 °C/77 °F.
As such, higher R-value/inch insulations that inherits the advantages of current insulation materials – low material cost, good mechanical and material properties in easy-to-use format – is in continuous demand to improve energy efficiency. AERO-D - a family of APD pDCPD aerogel-based products - has great potential to be such breakthrough material. APD pDCPD aerogel (stands for “ambient-pressure dried polydicyclopentadiene”) is an organic aerogel composite using inexpensive petroleum by-products as raw material and manufactured with the APD method. The material cost of AERO-D products is at around $1.50 – 2.50 per square feet, a 40-60x cheaper than silica aerogel. Such price is comparable to the currently-used insulation materials, but an R-value/inch > 6.0 (ASTM C518 and ASTM C177 methods) and a good mechanical properties profile will give AERO-D product advantages over these materials. Other desirable material properties includes no dustiness, lightweight, compression resistance, durability, impact and wear resistance, chemically stable and fire-resistance. We are currently looking for partnership and collaborative opportunity to test the AERO-D family product in relevant environment.