Aerogels 2024-2034: Technologies, Markets and Players

This market report provides a comprehensive and authoritative view of the global aerogel market, giving detailed ten-year market forecasts segmented by application and both material type and form. IDTechEx has been studying the aerogel industry for many years with technical experts conducting an extensive number of primary interviews to bring the reader a granular and detailed assessment of this industry.

 

Aerogels have experienced steady market growth historically, reaching a market of just under US$450 million in 2022. Progress has been somewhat slower than some would expect, this has largely been due to competition with lower cost incumbent insulation materials. However, the emergence of aerogels as a fire protection material for electric vehicle (EV) batteries provides a new and rapidly growing opportunity for the aerogel market. IDTechEx predicts that this will be the dominant application for aerogels within the forecast period.

 

 

 

The report provides benchmarking of aerogels against other fire protection materials for EV battery packs. The thermal insulation, compression, and fire protection benefits that aerogels can provide, along with their low density, means they are starting to see much greater adoption in this application. Whilst much of this progress has been in China, other regions are getting involved, for example, GM selected Aspen Aerogels' products for its Ultium platform.

 

A detailed assessment of all the aerogel manufacturers is given in the report, including their capacity, revenue, products, production processes, planned expansions, and more. A comprehensive patent analysis is conducted, which looks at key assignees and applications.

 

This report also details and benchmarks the different types and forms of pure and composite aerogel products. The most prevalent of these is silica aerogels, with the key property being very low thermal conductivity (λ = 15-25 mW/m.K); the commercial applications to date centre almost exclusively around silica blankets and panels for their use in thermal insulation. However, given the abundance and cost of traditional insulators, manufacturers have been unable to justify the high price on the superior insulating properties alone. Instead, they have looked to the added value of the properties these multi-functional materials possess, be it fire retardancy, low density, hydrophobicity, strength or electrical/acoustic insulation.

 

Silica particles (granules and powders) are gaining an increasing amount of interest either integrated into blankets and sheets post-production or used as fillers in a range of liquid or solid products including coatings, daylighting panels, and building material. Cabot Corporation has remained as the key player in these high-performance particles for over two-decades and continues to have its material implemented into new markets. Alongside this is the rise of the lower cost powders, led by the likes of JIOS Aerogel, that are gaining some market traction.

 

IDTechEx has identified organic aerogels, notably polymer panels and films, as a rapidly emerging area of commercial activity. Although silica monoliths are the most photographed, their brittleness makes them have practically no commercial applications. Polymer variants have very different mechanical properties, taking the industry in many new directions. Many of the promising players are establishing notable production capacities and there is already significant interest from large end-users across a range of sectors for their use in antennas to interiors for transportation. Carbon aerogels have been known for a longer time but are again seeing lots of market activity and technology developments (such as graphene aerogels) showing the most promise for energy storage applications.

 

Finally, this report looks further into the future, describing the cutting-edge applications and manufacturing techniques. Pricing forecasts are provided for all different types and are predicted to undergo significant shifts as increased capacities and emerging manufacturing processes are anticipated. The report extensively compares and discusses batch and continuous manufacturing processes for both supercritical drying, freeze drying, and ambient pressure drying techniques. This is with consideration to both established methods, start-up companies, and relevant academic or industrial research. There remains a constant interest in new materials, utilising renewable or recycled feedstocks, and ambitious manufacturing techniques such as 3D printing.

 

Benchmarking of aerogel products:

 

Analysis of aerogel applications:

Electric vehicle batteries, oil and gas, industrial, building and construction, windows, apparel, cosmetics, transportation, energy storage, aerospace, and several others

 

10 year market forecasts in US$:

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