Aerogel composites for carbon capture and thermal management in commercial buildings - Feasibility Study

One of the most efficient methods for reducing energy consumption in buildings and therefore global CO2 emission is the reduction of heat loss and gain via surface coatings. Since this constitutes over 40% of the building cooling and heating load, its reduction is an effective step in energy reduction. Manufacturing and using materials with low thermal conductivity such as aerogels, during the design and construction of the buildings will ensure that the insulation is an effective method for reducing energy bills through reduction of air conditioning and heating demand. In addition, it has been documented that indoor CO2 levels could be as high as 3700ppm in offices and 2800 ppm in schools which is considerably larger than 400 ppm CO2 outdoor levels. Air quality and associated health effects in urban areas are a major concern in both developed and developing countries.
Aerogels are ultra-light materials with the highest porosity known to man. Aerogels have outstanding thermal insulation properties and are therefore ideal materials for use in buildings. Aerogels have already been used in advanced applications by NASA. However, the widespread use of these materials is still limited because current commercial methods of synthesis require high pressure and high temperature to dry the gel, which is energy intensive and therefore produces materials too expensive for all except highly specialised use. Ambient pressure drying of gels provides an alternative, less energy intensive, route but commonly relies on replacing the original solvent used for gel preparation with various organic solvents which are also very costly.
The PI team at Newcastle University have recently discovered a simple novel method for ambient pressure drying of aerogels which eliminates the need for use of organic solvents. This environmentally friendly technique has the potential to form the basis of sustainable, low cost manufacturing of aerogels and aerogel-based composites, including 'smart' materials.
Our feasibility study aims to make substantial cost reduction and engineering scale up development of new composite aerogel based materials for simultaneous direct carbon air capture in buildings and as efficient thermal insulation. If the study were successful, it would bring down energy consumption in the world. Since the total carbon footprint is similar in magnitude to that projected for energy efficiency efforts in buildings, the study that we propose on CO2 removal from commercial buildings, can also have impact at a climatically relevant scale and has direct implications for air quality.
This project aims at reducing the cost of aerogel manufacture tenfold making high quality functional insulating materials widely available, improving energy efficiency and placing UK manufacturing in the forefront of a new technology.

In recent past there have been unpredictable rapid fluctuations in the cost of energy, so the secure supply of energy sources and our ability to use them efficiently have been shown to be extremely important for the UK and the world economy. Among the main issues related to the use of inexpensive energy sources (i.e., fossil fuels) are carbon management and energy efficiency/reduction of consumption.
Our proposed feasibility study which incorporates novel manufacturing technology for composite aerogels can have a large impact on construction and manufacturing industry in regard to energy savings (so improving energy security) and could establish a new industrial process. Aerogels are important as specific insulation materials for applications as diverse as buildings to industrial plant (such as low temperature heat pumps). Our proposed feasibility study is therefore potentially of global and cross-sector significance, producing cost savings both at point of use and in carbon credits since many industrial processes could become more efficient. As our process works at atmospheric pressure, does not necessitate investment in expensive equipment, and has low energy consumption we project that our method could lower costs of production by at least 10 times compared with the current price of aerogels produced by supercritical CO2 drying.
There is also an urgent need to reduce emission of greenhouse gases in order to mitigate the worst impact of climate change on the environment, human society and our economies. CO2 has the largest impact on global climate change due to large increases in the air from to human activity, now reaching level of >400 ppm according to data from the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii. More than 10 years ago, in 2005, the world's buildings emitted 8.3 Gt of carbon dioxide each year, accounting for more than 30% of the greenhouse gas emission in many developed countries. It has been projected that by 2030 the decrease in global CO2 emission in buildings could be 3.5 Gt CO2 per year by 2030 if the investment is found.
Our proposed feasibility study also aims to make substantial cost reduction and engineering scale up development of composite amine based aerogel materials for simultaneous direct CO2 capture inside of buildings. Since the total carbon footprint for direct carbon air capture in buildings is similar in magnitude to that projected for energy efficiency efforts in buildings, our study on CO2 removal from commercial buildings can also have impact at a climatically relevant scale. Our work if successful could have direct implications environmentally for improvement of air quality.
The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), part of the World Health Organization, has recently declared air pollution, and more specifically particulate matter, as Group 1 carcinogen. Public Health England in 2014 has estimated that annually about 29,000 deaths of over-25s are caused by long-term exposure to PM2.5 (dust particles with less than 2.5 microns aerodynamic diameter) with an associated 306,835 life-years lost. It is thus important to find ways to reduce particulate matter pollution from major sources. Aerogels have already been used in advanced applications by NASA for the stardust removal at space crafts. The porous network structure of silica aerogel composites that will be developed in this work have potential of both CO2 indoor and dust particles removal.