idw – Informationsdienst Wissenschaft
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
The Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology UMSICHT has revolutionized the production process of the high-performance insulation material aerogel. For this, the researchers received the first Innovation Award of the European Association for Research and Technology Organization EARTO in the “Impact Expected” category in Brussels on October 11, 2023 . The non-profit association awards the prize to products and services with high social or economic benefits for the EU.
Aerogels are considered the best insulation material in the world. However, the production of the thermal super insulators has been cost-intensive so far, therefore they were only used in niche applications. Fraunhofer UMSICHT set itself the goal of producing aerogels at low cost and thus making them suitable for mass production. Within six years, the researchers developed a novel production process for aerogels that combines various production steps with the help of supercritical CO2 and thus significantly reduces production costs: The manufacturing costs were reduced by 70 percent and the production time from more than ten to four hours. The production process also does not require any environmentally hazardous chemicals and is therefore sustainable.
The process has been successfully transferred to pilot plant scale, and preparations are now underway for upscaling to industrial scale. The process technology innovation will enable various sectors and in particular the construction industry to exploit the outstanding material properties of aerogels for mass products in the future.
The award ceremony was held for the 15th time. Prof. Dr.-Ing. Manfred Renner, Head of Institute Fraunhofer UMSICHT, and Nils Mölders, Head of the Product Development Department, accepted the award on behalf of the team in Brussels. This year, the EARTO Award recognized a total of six innovation projects in the two categories "Impact Expected" and "Impact Delivered".
https://www.umsicht.fraunhofer.de/en/projects/aerogel-new-manufacturing-process.... (Project fact sheet Aerogels)
https://www.umsicht.fraunhofer.de/en/projects/aerogel-new-manufacturing-process.... (EARTO Press release)
(EARTO Innovation Awards 2023 - AEROPlaster - Fraunhofer UMSICHT)
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Manfred Renner and Nils Mölders received the award on behalf of the team in Brussels.
EARTO
The winning team (from left): Nils Mölders, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Manfred Renner, Dr. rer. nat. Eva Schiefe ...
Fraunhofer UMSICHT
Criteria of this press release:
Business and commerce, Journalists, Scientists and scholars
Chemistry, Construction / architecture, Energy, Environment / ecology, Materials sciences
transregional, national
Contests / awards, Research projects
English
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Manfred Renner and Nils Mölders received the award on behalf of the team in Brussels.
EARTO
The winning team (from left): Nils Mölders, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Manfred Renner, Dr. rer. nat. Eva Schiefe ...
Fraunhofer UMSICHT
You can combine search terms with and, or and/or not, e.g. Philo not logy.
You can use brackets to separate combinations from each other, e.g. (Philo not logy) or (Psycho and logy).
Coherent groups of words will be located as complete phrases if you put them into quotation marks, e.g. “Federal Republic of Germany”.
You can also use the advanced search without entering search terms. It will then follow the criteria you have selected (e.g. country or subject area).
If you have not selected any criteria in a given category, the entire category will be searched (e.g. all subject areas or all countries).
