Which industries mainly use aerogels?

As an important domestic cluster for the aerogel industry, Qingdao relies on the scientific research transformation capabilities of local universities and the foundation of advanced manufacturing, forming a complete application system centered on building energy conservation and industrial insulation, with coordinated development across new energy, pipeline equipment, food and pharmaceuticals, rail transit and ships, functional textiles, and environmental protection special protection. The specific application scenarios are as follows:

1. New Energy Industry (Popular Growth Track)

This is currently the direction attracting high attention and growing rapidly in the aerogel industry. The core utilizes aerogel's excellent thermal insulation and flame retardancy properties to produce standardized heat insulation sheets, flexible insulation pads, or fireproof coatings, integrated between lithium battery cells and inside battery packs. When a single cell experiences thermal runaway and a sharp temperature rise, it effectively blocks heat and flame spread to adjacent cells, delaying the overall ignition and explosion of the battery pack, and buying valuable escape time for occupants. At the same time, it has been expanded to include thermal insulation in photovoltaic module backplanes, anti-icing coatings for wind turbine blades, and thermal safety protection for battery modules in energy storage power stations.

2. Building Energy Conservation Sector (Mature Application Market)

This is the core area of mature aerogel industrialization in Qingdao, mainly addressing the pain points of traditional insulation materials such as thick thickness, flammability, and short service life. The core products are aerogel thermal insulation coatings, aerogel mortar, and integrated insulation panels, which require only one-third to one-half the thickness of traditional materials to achieve the same thermal insulation effect. They also have Class A non-combustible fire resistance, reducing overall building energy consumption by more than 30%.

Civil buildings: insulation and heat preservation for exterior walls, roofs, interior walls, floor slabs, energy-saving renovations of old residential communities in northern regions. Public buildings: hospitals, schools, hotels, office buildings, high-speed rail stations, airports, and other densely populated places. Special buildings for constant temperature and energy efficiency: cold storage, cold chain warehouses, constant temperature and humidity storage rooms, archives, data centers, for precise temperature control and energy consumption optimization.

3. Industrial Insulation Sector (Outstanding Energy-Saving Value)

For complex industrial environments such as high temperature, high pressure, and corrosive conditions, aerogel blankets offer integrated solutions combining efficient energy saving and safety protection.

Petrochemicals: energy-saving insulation for transmission pipelines, reactors, storage tanks, refining units. Thermal and urban pipelines: urban steam pipelines, centralized heating/refrigeration pipelines, heating stations, heat exchange stations, industrial circulating water pipelines. Insulation for industrial furnaces and high-temperature equipment: furnace bodies in steel mills, aluminum industries, industrial boilers, waste heat boilers, and steam generator walls. Technical advantages: The product can withstand continuous high temperatures up to 450°C, with thermal conductivity superior to traditional materials such as rock wool and glass wool. It offers excellent waterproof and corrosion resistance, preventing insulation failure and corrosion of pipe exteriors caused by water absorption.

4. Pipeline Equipment Sector (Innovative Integration Features)

Qingdao was among the first in the country to deeply integrate aerogel materials with pipeline equipment technology, developing integrated technology for super-assembled aerogel felt blankets and intelligent prefabricated direct-buried insulation pipes. This technology reduces insulation layer thickness by 50%, has a thermal conductivity ≤ 0.021W/(m·K), and combines multiple functions such as corrosion resistance, waterproofing, and flame retardancy. The system has a service life of over 20 years and is widely used in major projects such as urban central heating, long-distance transportation of petrochemical raw materials, nuclear power plant steam transmission, and industrial steam and heat transmission.

5. Food, Pharmaceutical, and Tobacco Industry (Clean Production Advantage)

Qingdao aerogel has formed a unique competitive advantage among the top nationwide in the clean production segment. To meet the industry's stringent requirements for production environment cleanliness and dust-free contamination, we offer exclusive insulation solutions for process gas pipelines, CO2 cold ends, steam pipelines, and special-shaped valves. By adopting dust-free spraying or prefabricated wrapping processes, retrofitting can be completed without stopping production, with construction efficiency improved by over 60% compared to traditional methods; The material meets national food and drug contact safety standards, contains no volatile substances or fiber shedding, and does not affect the cleanliness of the production environment.

6. Rail Transit and Shipbuilding Marine Engineering (High-End Equipment Support)

Fully leveraging Qingdao's industrial endowment as a national base for rail transit equipment manufacturing and the center of the marine economy, it provides customized solutions for high-end transportation and marine engineering.

Rail transit: roofs, side walls, chassis, driver's cabs, and air conditioning system insulation for high-speed rail/EMU trains; Key components such as subway carriages, light rail vehicles, train brake systems, and traction converters provide thermal insulation protection, while also offering excellent damping and noise reduction performance, effectively reducing equipment vibration and noise. Marine engineering for ships: ship engine rooms, pipelines, steam pipelines, cargo holds, and refrigerated cabins for thermal insulation and flame retardant; Offshore platform drilling equipment and oil pipelines offer insulation and corrosion resistance, salt spray resistance, and aging resistance, significantly reducing ship weight and increasing payload capacity.

7. Functional Textiles and Outdoor Products Sector (Extreme Cold Insulation Technology)

Qingdao is at a high level domestically in aerogel fiber preparation and textile application technology, breaking through the technical bottleneck of aerogel brittle and difficulty in spinning. Its core technology is integrating aerogel nanoporous structures into fibers, producing aerogel fibers that maintain stable thermal insulation performance within an extreme temperature range of -196°C to 300°C, with insulation performance at low temperatures 2.8 times that of cotton fabric and over 1.5 times that of down. The material is thin, soft, and highly breathable, solving the pain points of traditional insulation materials that are heavy and stuffy. It is widely used in cold-resistant clothing, sportswear, thermal underwear, outdoor gear (tents, sleeping bags, hiking boots), as well as bulletproof vests, firefighting suits, and other special protective clothing.

8. Environmental Protection and Special Protection Industry (Breakthroughs in Emerging Applications)

Relying on aerogel's high specific surface area and unique pore structure, Qingdao enterprises are actively expanding diversified emerging applications:

Environmental management: Producing high-efficiency adsorption filtration materials for treating heavy metal ions, organic pollutants, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in industrial wastewater; Developed an oleophilic and hydrophobic offshore oil-absorbing sponge with adsorption capacity dozens of times its own weight, capable of recovering oil stains through extrusion and reusing; It can also be used for high-precision air filtration in cleanrooms and gas masks Water resource utilization: Based on the special photothermal conversion capabilities of carbon-based or graphene aerogels, a solar seawater desalination evaporator has been developed to efficiently absorb sunlight and localize energy at the seawater surface, achieving low-temperature, high-efficiency evaporation of produced water Scientific research support: Developed self-adhesive, thermally processable aerogel capsules, providing key technical support for engineering applications such as insulation of complex components.