Aerogel is a three-dimensional continuous porous material composed of nano pores and nano skeletons. Its unique structure makes it have many incomparable characteristics of conventional materials, the most significant of which is the extremely low thermal conductivity.
Thermal insulation principle of aerogel
★ "Infinite Path" Effect:
The reticular framework of aerogel extends the heat conduction path infinitely, and the heat is difficult to conduct at the gas-solid interface.
★ "Zero convection" effect:
The pore diameter of aerogel (20-50nm) is smaller than the average free path of air (70nm), so the internal air cannot flow freely.
★ "Infinite Thermal Barrier" Effect:
The network skeleton of aerogel forms an "infinite thermal barrier effect", which has a shielding effect on thermal radiation.
Aerogel composite
The nano aerogel is compounded with glass fiber, ceramic fiber and other substrates, perfectly combining the aerogel with excellent performance with the flexible substrate, maximizing the lightweight, thermal insulation and other characteristics of the aerogel, and endowing the aerogel with flexibility and toughness. With the additional characteristics of ultra long service life, super strong thermal insulation performance, super high fire resistance performance, and super excellent mechanical performance, it is widely used in military aerospace, thermal pipeline network, petrochemical industry, new energy vehicles, rail transit, consumer electronics, textiles and other fields.
policy support
At the 2020 United Nations General Assembly, China first proposed the ambitious goals of peaking carbon emissions and achieving carbon neutrality. Promoting the use of aerogel thermal insulation materials instead of traditional thermal insulation materials is of great strategic significance for reducing carbon emissions and achieving the goal of double carbon.
As a basic strategic frontier new material, aerogel material is one of the new materials that the country focuses on developing. The country has successively issued a number of policy documents to support the industrial application of aerogel industry.
On September 22, 2021, the Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Completely, Accurately and Comprehensively Implementing the New Development Concept and Doing a Good Job in Carbon Peak and Carbon Neutralization (ZF [2021] No. 36) was officially released, which put forward guiding opinions for doing a good job in carbon peak and carbon neutralization, "accelerating the research and development and promotion of advanced and applicable technologies, and promoting the research and development and application of new materials such as aerogels".
Application Cases
For the thermal insulation of industrial pipelines and equipment, compared with the traditional thermal insulation cotton scheme, the aerogel scheme has the characteristics of safety, environmental protection, energy conservation and efficiency.
Taking a medium and high temperature industrial steam pipeline as an example, it is laid overhead, with steam temperature of 465 ℃, pressure of 5.3Mpa, flow of 60t/h, pipe diameter of DN250, and the original 150mm aluminum silicate insulation is used. The design uses aerogel insulation blanket to compare the insulation effect as follows:
Compared with the heat loss of using 150mm thick aluminum silicate and 60mm aerogel thermal insulation blanket, the energy saving rate of using aerogel can reach more than 40%.
Compared with the aluminum silicate scheme, the annual energy savings and benefits of the aerogel scheme are as follows based on the pipe length per kilometer:
Calculated based on an annual operation of 8000 hours, the heat price is 70 yuan/GJ.
Because of its long service life, safety and efficiency, aerogel materials can create greater economic value for customers in the case of a long time cycle. If the effective service life of aluminum silicate is 3 years and the effective service life of gel felt is 15 years, the use of gel thermal insulation felt will reduce by 4 times compared with the use of aluminum silicate felt in 15 years, and the total investment of gel thermal insulation felt will reduce by about 55% compared with the total investment of traditional materials. Save an average of 91770 yuan in material and construction costs per year; Compared with aluminum silicate, the use of aerogel felt can obtain an annual income of 3621500 yuan, and the extra investment in the use of aerogel felt can be recovered in 1.7 years. During the service life of gel materials (taking 15 years as an example), the use of gel thermal insulation energy-saving materials for pipelines can create additional economic benefits of 3621500 yuan * 13.3 years ≈ 4816590 yuan for users.
From the perspective of the whole life cycle of aerogel materials, the aerogel scheme reduces the number of maintenance and replacement compared with the traditional insulation cotton scheme, thus reducing the cost of pipeline insulation operation and maintenance. At the same time, it has energy-saving effects, creating greater economic benefits for customers, and also greatly reducing the operation and management costs for enterprises and improving the operation and management level.
At the same time, due to the unique hydrophobic and breathable properties of aerogel materials, corrosion under the insulation layer (CUI) can be avoided to the greatest extent.
Aerogel thermal insulation blanket is the most ideal thermal insulation material in the fields of industrial pipeline insulation, storage tank insulation, automobile fire insulation material and building insulation.