American Ceramic Society Bulletin

ceramics in the environment
Cabot launches new aerogel
additives for coatings
The holy grail for thermal insulation
is a practical (i.e, inexpensive
and easy to use) product that incorporates
silica-based aerogel, and, at
first glance, Cabot’s new Enova line of
aerogel particles appears to be a step in
the right direction.
Bulk silica aerogel is a hydrophobic
superinsulator, but it is extremely brittle
and, therefore, not so easy to manufacture
in quantity, transport, use in large
sizes, etc. Some niche applications have
been found where the size of the products
are small and buyers are willing to
pay a premium for the extra performance.
Other companies, such as Cabot,
ThermoBlok and Aspen, also have
been trying to find a useful middle
ground, where some thickness and
performance characteristics are being
traded off for ease-of-use considerations.
And, so far, even these are being aimed
at high-payoff types of applications,
such as pipelines and storage tanks,
where added temperature control can
yield major energy savings and to create
thermal barriers in isolated construction
elements, such as steel stud facings.
Cabot’s innovation in aerogel seems
to be developing a product aimed specifically
at the coatings market. Although
the reliance on particles rather than
sheets of aerogel decreases the potential
for insulation, this disadvantage could
be offset by the advantage of being easily
sprayed on using standard manufacturing
and constructon equipment.
An announcement from the company,
timed to coincide with the opening of
the European Coatings Show, says that,
“applying a [1-millimeter] coating containing
Enova aerogel to a 200°C metal
surface meets U.S. and European testing
protocols for safe touch temperature, preventing
the first-degree burns one would
normally expect within five seconds of
skin contact. A thicker application, such
as a [2-millimeter] coating results in a
reduction in energy use of 30 percent for
uninsulated metal vessels maintained at
70°C. This can easily translate to poten-
Cabot’s Enova 3110 aerogel particles.
tial applications as wide ranging as home
and commercial appliances, process piping,
building and tank storage.”
Cabot says the thermal conductivity
of the particles is 12 milliwatts per
meterper degree kelvin. Although this
is theoretically better than polyurethane
foam (30 mW/m·K), the company
admits that the thermal conductivity
of Enova can exceed polyurathane (30
mW/m·K to 50 mW/m·K) when the particles
are used as an additive in a waterborne
formulation. Cabot points out
that this is still seven to 10 times more
insulative than standard paint – and I
suspect that the company will be looking
to develop some partnerships with
paint manufacturers and construction
material suppliers.
The Enova brand actually encompasses
three types of aerogel products,
which are mainly differentiated by
particle size: 0.1–0.7 millimeter, 0.1–1.2
millimeter and 2–40 micrometer.
James Pidhurney, Cabot’s manager
for the Enova products, predicts in
the company’s announcement that
big changes may be in store. He says
the, “Enova aerogel [additive] creates
a paradigm shift in how the industry
thinks about insulation and coatings,
two products which were once mutually
exclusive. In the past, if you wanted
flexibility in a coating, you had to
compromise on insulation performance.
Enova additives enable a new class of
coatings that deliver[s] the performance
of traditional insulation and the flexibility
of a coating in a single product.”
Visit: www.cabot-corp.com/aerogel/
coatings n
Leaking water infrastructure is
$20B annual market, according
to Lux, and growing
Lux Research has just published a
new research report, “Patching Water
Infrastructure Where it Leaks Money.”
Lux divides the opportunities into
two categories: pipe repair solutions and
monitoring solutions.
Pipe repair, at first glance, seems
straight forward, but Lux senior
researcher Brent Giles is unexcited
about this sector, saying there is little
technical innovation. He argues that the
big money in this market is in monitoring
solutions for water and waste systems.
The analogy he draws is to Smart
Grid technology that is enabling utilities
to monitor their systems in real time,
and to target resources and repairs.
According to Giles, water/waste
managers likewise need to benefit from
advances in information technologies.
They need real-time and detailed
monitoring of the water infrastructure,
which also can alert them to a range of
problems, including storm surges and
contaminant dumping.
Giles, who authored the report, says
software and sensor technologies can
provide a dynamic picture of a water
utility’s entire infrastructure. “Without
this holistic view, utilities cannot prioritize
the most critical repairs – and may
end up throwing money down the drain
to address the leaks that are visible
today rather than the ones that could
prove catastrophic tomorrow,” he says.
Giles says, however, to think beyond
“Smart Water Meters.” There are new
opportunities in leak and chemical
detectors, underground mapping systems
(such as LIDAR), algorithmic event
predictors and systems for processing and
responding to Smart Meter data.
He says some managers need to own
three-dimensional maps that show
exactly where the pipe is. The next
step will be to start placing detectors
and dynamic meters and simultaneously
begin to create event models.
Visit www.luxresearchinc.com n
14 American Ceramic Society Bulletin, Vol. 90, No. 4
(Credit: Cabot.)