Bath aerogel spinout eyes aerospace market

Aerogel Core Ltd has been funded by Innovate UK to commercialise the initial academic research, carried out at Bath’s Department of Mechanical Engineering. The Bath team developed a method to incorporate graphene into an ultralight aerogel, retaining the material’s shape and strength without the gel structure collapsing.

As well as providing super-lightweight sound insulation, the aerogel material has other functional properties such as thermal, fire and electromagnetic interference shielding, making it a strong candidate for aerospace applications.

“Our initial calculations for a 280 aircraft fleet, like that of British Airways, would see an estimated 30-90 tonne reduction in CO2 emissions per year by using our material, due to reducing the weight of similar materials by up to 50 per cent,” said Gian-Piero Malfense Fierro, research fellow at Bath’s department of Mechanical Engineering.

“This is ground-breaking for the aerospace industry. We look forward to commercialising the technology and proving the scalability of our manufacturing process.”

The team will now focus on proving the scalability of the technology through automation of the manufacturing process and further development of the aerogel material. The grant from Innovate UK’s ICURe (Innovation and Commercialisation of University Research) programme will enable the first steps towards commercial exploitation and expanding the business case for other markets.

“The funding we have received from Innovate UK proves that our research is not just theoretical or done in the lab but has real-world application and, most importantly, contributes to society,” said Professor Michele Meo, principal investigator of the research.

“Having spun out we now intend to reach other markets, such as the automotive, marine, and acoustic insulation, further supporting government targets of building back greener.”