Dragonfly Insulation: Manufacturing of Aerogels

气凝胶是人类已知的最具渗透性和热效率的材料。它们被用于太空探索，包括捕获高速星尘，太空运载火箭的低温隔热材料，以及火星漫游车的隔热材料。由于其出色的绝缘性能，气凝胶具有巨大的商业化潜力，但到目前为止，高昂的制造成本限制了它们在国内的应用。致力于这些开发的气凝胶公司正在应对未来几十年世界面临的一些主要挑战，如节能制造工艺和材料，以促进能源效率。这些应用中的许多依赖于使用通过高压工艺或通过环境压力工艺制造的气凝胶和大量高成本的有机干燥溶剂。商业气凝胶的成本仍然很高，因为需要特殊的加压室和高能耗和/或大量昂贵的有机溶剂，因此是生产或使用气凝胶产品的公司未来商业潜力的一个重要瓶颈。尽管对气凝胶产品的需求正在出现，但传统的高压气凝胶制造和环境压力气凝胶制造(使用高成本的有机溶剂)永远不能实际满足市场需求。目前，英国还没有生产气凝胶的工厂。在蜻蜓绝缘有限公司，我们的目标是在英格兰东北部建立气凝胶(粉末/颗粒)的创新制造工厂。我们的新方法是从传统的高压/高溶剂成本的制造工艺转变为简单的环境压力制造工艺，其中气凝胶是用低成本的水基干燥溶剂生产的。我们的创新首次促进了这种做法。有见及此，目前的建议将使蜻蜓绝缘有限公司能够成立为一家企业，雇用合格的团队成员，租用制造/办公场所，支付顾问费用、法律费用和进一步的市场研究。在这个阶段加快公司的发展将有助于蜻蜓绝缘有限公司吸引私人投资者进行其产品的初步开发和销售。

Aerogels are the most porous and thermally efficient materials known to man. They are used in space exploration including the capture of high-speed star-dust, cryogenic insulation for space launch vehicles and thermal insulation for Mars rovers. With their outstanding insulation properties, aerogels have great potential to be commercialised, but until now the high cost of manufacturing has prohibited their use in domestic applications. Aerogel companies working on these developments are addressing some of the major challenges facing the world over the coming decades, such as energy-efficient manufacturing processes and materials to promote energy efficiency.Many of these applications rely on the use of aerogels manufactured through a high-pressure-process or through an environmental-pressure-process with a large amount of high-cost organic drying solvent. The cost of commercial aerogel is still high due to the requirement of special pressurised chambers and high-energy consumption and/or a large amount of expensive organic solvent and is, therefore, a significant bottleneck to the future commercial potential of companies that produce or use aerogel products.Whilst there is an emerging demand for aerogel products both the traditional high-pressure manufacture of aerogel and environmental-pressure manufacture of aerogel (using high-cost organic solvent) can never practically meet the demands of the market. Currently, there is no aerogel manufacture in the UK. At Dragonfly Insulation Ltd, we aim to establish an innovative manufacturing facility for aerogels (powder/granules) in the North East of England. Our novel approach is to move from the traditional high-pressure/high-solvent-cost manufacturing process to a simple environmental pressure manufacturing process where aerogels are produced with low-cost water-based drying solvent. Our innovation facilitates such an approach for the first time.In light of this, the current proposal will enable the setting up of Dragonfly Insulation Ltd as a business hiring qualified team members, renting manufacturing/office space, paying for consultancy, legal costs and further market research. Accelerating the company's development at this stage will help Dragonfly Insulation Ltd to attract private investors for the initial development and sales of its products.