Aerogel Industry Has Been Explored Extensively and Highlighted a Great Deal of Potential
Successfully commercialising the aerogel industry has been explored extensively and has been highlighted as an energy source that has a great deal of potential. However, even with the buzz in this area, the development of the project is not a simple task for those that are involved in the manufacture of aerogel. There have been a number of different attempts to produce commercial aerogel over the course of the 20th Century, but these attempts have ended in failure. Examples of these commercial production projects include the 40s attempt from Monsanto and the BASF attempt that took place in the 80s. With these continuous failed attempts, the industry around creating commercially available aerogel could decline significantly due to the setbacks that they have experienced. This industry has been able to take advantage of the improvements that have happened in different manufacturing procedures as well as a greater awareness of the technology as well as the new creation of composite and polymeric materials has allowed for the development of the aerogel industry, which is currently experiencing new levels of development. Those in the aerogel industry will be looking to to generate more diversity in the industry in order to help the area of manufacturing improve. Business into this industry comes in the most part from the oil and gas sector where a silica composite is utilised in order to provide insulation in places such as refineries and subsea pipelines. The material that is manufactured in this sector is ideal in order to provide this service as it is lightweight and hydrophobic as well as highly thermally insulative. Because the aerogel industry is developing and emerging into the market, the solutions offered by the manufacturing of this product are more expensive than the incumbent. This means that for the moment the industry does require clients willing to spend the extra amount in order to allow the sector to continue to grow and reach its potential.
