Progress 09/01/10 to 08/31/13
Outputs
Target Audience: During this period, Mayaterials has worked with several rubber companies to develop new applications for the silica produced as part of our process. In addition both our vacuum insulation panels(VIP) cores and silica were tested byinsulation for integration in their current VIP production.Refrigeration companies have been contacted and production of prototypes for consumer refrigeration is underway. Finally Mayaterials was approached to develop prototypes and scale production for the insulation of cold boxes for long range transportation oftemperature sensitive pharmaceuticals andbiologics products. Changes/Problems: (1) Mayaterials developed an even less costly method of extracting silica from biogenic silica using only catalitic amount of base. Compared to our initial approach of extracting silica from biogenic silica in the form of octaanions our new method extract silica in the form of glycoxysilane, allowing much higher recycling and overall costs are less than a third of our projected cost for our original process. (2) We investigated spray drying to remove bottlenecks caused by the drying of precipitated silica drying. Once a suitable system was provided by one of our strategic partners it considerably decreased drying time and improved both silica and core batch consistency. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?
Nothing Reported
How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Our processhas been presented at several chemical and materials scientific conferences.This resulted in several contacts with large companies that have now become strategic partners and are investing in the technology to replaceconventional silica used in their applicationsby our biogenic derived silica. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Through this project we have developed the extraction of silica from rice hull ashes and other biogenic silica in the form of glycoxy-silane. We have scaled this reaction several time and currently process 20 kg batches. This scale-up was used to start the design of both a 900 tons/year and a 20k tons/year plant with the help of an engineering firm hired by our partners. We have also developed and scale-up the controlled precipitation of silica from glycoxysilane. We have used this silica to generate further interests and funding as well as for the production of silica/silica gel composite cores for vacuum insulation panels. Mayaterials has developed several techniques for producing a wide range of precipitated silica from glycoxy-silane, with varied specific surface area, total porosity volume and distribution, aggregate size and surface chemistries. Several companies have investigated these silica powders as an additive to rubber, to use as a biogenic stand-in replacement for current source of precipitated silicas or to improve current products. Drying of these silica powders has also been scaled-up with the use of spray drying, with the added benefits of a tighter control of the powders aggregate size. This wide-range of silica powders were used to produce very low density silica/silica gel composite cores. We mixed the precipitated silica powder (with/without the addition of PEG) with glycoxy-silane and started the gelation of the glycoxysilane, casted the resulting slurry and carefully dried the resulting green bodies. By varying the properties of the silica powders, the gelation conditions, the ratio of gel to silica powder and the drying conditions, we have been able to produce silica/silica gel composite cores with densities (0.23 g/cc) close to 10% of the density of bulk silica (in other words our cores are close to 90% pores). This very low density limits the heat transfer by conduction through the core. Surprisingly despite their low densities and in sharp contrast with traditional vacuum insulation cores, the cores we produced show unusual mechanical toughness and can be used as part of the structural component of the structure being insulated. Testing of the thermal conductivity of these cores showed that their thermal insulation (R=40/inch) was equivalent to commercially available silica based vacuum insulation but for a fraction of the costs. Based on our economic model and a third party evaluation of our process, we have been able to precisely determine the various costs of our process. Our project cost for fully assembled vacuum insulation panels (60-90 cm sides) is estimated at $0.66-1.37/ft2 ($495/m3 of insulation depending on thickness). Mayaterials is continuing development of this process with funding from strategic partners whose interest was initially sparked by the use of our biogenic derived precipitated silica as an additive to rubber. Further development of this project involves further scaling of the dissolution and precipitation at several 100s kg scale. In addition the casting of the silica powder /silica gel needs to be automated and scaled-up to deliver the amounts needed for beta-testing of our vacuum insulation panels. Further scale-up is planned to produce enough insulation for both the refrigeration market and the medical temperature-sensitive cold box market. To summarize of our 4 objectives: (1) We have succesfully increased the insolation properties of our VIP to R=40/inch by controlling the core porosity and low density. (2) Scale-up was longer than initially planed and production scale-up has not reached the quantities ( equivalentto 150 kg batches) deemed optimal for widespread testing. Funds from strategic partnerswill be usedto reach and surpass this scale. (3) Projected costs (as evaluated by third party) are $7.1-14.2/m2 well below our initial cost objectives. (4) mechanical properties are unlike any VIP commercially available. Cores are sturdy enough to be used in construction by themselves and have gathered interest for these properties.
Publications
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Progress 09/01/11 to 08/31/12
Outputs
OUTPUTS: This project goal is to develop and commercialize vacuum insulation panels (VIP), a form of high quality insulation produced from rice hull ash (RHA) an agricultural waste produced in kilotons quantity for a fraction of the costs of current VIP technologies. RHA is produced in kilotons quantities in the US for various applications (additive in cement, steel manufacturing...) including energy production such as our partner Wadham Energy's power plant (producing 40 kTons/year of RHA). The RHA is more than 90% amorphous silica and much more reactive than crystalline silica. The overall process is to: 1-dissolve the amorphous silica in the RHA, 2-re-precipitate the silica under controlled conditions to obtain a slurry with controlled silica particle size and porosity, 3-cast the slurry into the shape of the VIP core, 4-drie the core while avoiding shrinkage and pore collapse, 5-package the core into a metalized polymer film to form the final VIP products. Mayaterials has developed several paths to extracting the silica in the RHA into a liquid form using low temperature process using non-toxic, easily recycled chemicals. During Phase II of this project Mayaterials has perfected and scaled (20 kg of RHA reacted per batch) an inexpensive route to silica dissolution at low temperature. All chemicals used in this process are recycled above 93%. Scale up of this process has been used to precisely design a commercial plant with the 900-tons/year capacity required to reach 5 % market penetration of the high-end house refrigerator market as well as a larger plant. From these design and the data gathered in the laboratory we have also crafted more precise estimates of the various costs of this project The slurries thus formed have been cast and resulted in very low core densities once dried (as low as 0.2-0.25 g/cc, less than 10% of the density of bulk silica). These cores have much higher mechanical properties than traditional cores used in VIP and have comparable insulation properties (R=27/inch) to commercial VIP, for a small fraction of the costs: total production costs are $0.66/ft for the final VIP products ($495/m3 of insulation). Note that these cost were externally confirmed by an engineering consulting firm. During this period we have sent additional samples of our precipitated silica to several companies for evaluation. PARTICIPANTS: Julien Marchal worked as the PI of this project. He was assisted by Vera Popova (senior chemist) and David Krug (R&D engineer), who helped with improving the process. David Krug also worked on improving and scaling the casting of the VIP cores. He was assisted in this task by Garret Huff(laboratory assistant). Wadham Energy LLC and Empower Corp. provided in-kind and financial support during this project, in particular hiring an engineering consulting firm for evaluating the cost of full commercial plant. This work was done by the Harris Group. TARGET AUDIENCES: In addition to offering better/less expensive insulation to refrigerator manufacturers, this project has the potential to offer a new source of revenue for companies producing RHA. BY increasing the value of RHA, a large adoption of this process should increase the value of rice hulls and thus offer an additional revenue stream to rice producers. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Due to an unforeseen change of location of our company and the rebuilding of our laboratories, the project as been significantly delayed and a request for a one year no-cost expansion was sent to USDA and approved.
Impacts
Continuing scale-up of the reactions was a major effort during this period and will continue to be in the foreseeable future: Based on the small pilot scale reactor we designed in the latest period we have doubled our production capacity. Further scale-up will be necessary to supply the demand of early prototypes. Our current scale process was used by an engineering consulting firm to further design a full size commercial plant. External evaluation of the process has allowed for further refinement of our cost models: $0.66/ft for the final VIP products ($495/m3 of insulation) still orders of magnitudes below comparable silica based VIP currently available. Larger samples have been requested by several companies that have positively evaluated our earlier samples and we are currently working to supply these.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 09/01/10 to 08/31/11
Outputs
OUTPUTS: The goal of this project is to develop high quality insulation made by a low temperature/low energy process from agricultural byproducts. Mayaterials currently uses rice hulls ashes (RHA) that are the byproduct of burning rice hulls to produce electricity by our partner (using 200,000 tons of rice hulls to power a 30 MW generator). Using a proprietary low temperature process, Mayaterials produces all components to form vacuum insulation panel (VIP) cores. Of these components precipitated silica is the most important as a) it represent most of the weight of the final silica core, and b) can be sold as-is offering potential for financing faster scale-up of the project. To accomplish these goals we have produced several prototype panels and sent samples of the insulation materials to two multi-billion dollars companies for evaluation. VIPs made with our process are also under evaluation by a building company, with discussions underway for testing in prototype housing. In addition to presenting our new project on our website, we have issued a press release to over a thousand contacts. Mayaterials also presented this project to the Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition. PARTICIPANTS: During this period Mayaterials has finalized an agreement with Wadham Energy, LP for further scale-up of this project and the development of a full-scale production plant. TARGET AUDIENCES: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Mayaterials had to relocate to a new location, after our old location was scheduled for demolition by our landlord. Our new location needed considerable upgrading, which took much more time than we had anticipated. As such works and expenditure was considerably slowed for several months.
Impacts
Scale-up of the synthesis reactions was the major effort during this period, which has allowed us to produce large quantities of core materials needed for outside evaluation. We were able to successfully scale up the reactions to 10 kg batches after designing a small pilot scale reactor. The increased availability of materials has also allowed Mayaterials to lower the core density (lowering weight and increasing thermal insulation) while keeping high mechanical strength. In addition to supplying the materials for outside evaluation, this scale up has allowed us to refine our cost analysis and develop the needed energy/time data and detailed process diagrams for planning the construction of a full-scale plant for this process. This confirms our earlier cost estimate for the final VIP cores at $0.40/kg, which is orders of magnitudes below comparable silica based VIP currently available.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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