Westwood Aerogel presents ZeroTherm, a scalable breakthrough aerogel insulation engineered to meet the growing demand for high-performance insulation materials. Westwood Aerogel uses a proprietary manufacturing method that maintains the balance of properties in aerogels while drastically reducing costs.
FELLOW
Patricia McNeil
Patricia McNeil is a materials science and engineering Ph.D. candidate at UCLA, where she also earned her B.S. She spearheaded the development of ambient drying for aerogels, which greatly improves the scalability of these materials. McNeil is a trainee in the National Science Foundation’s Innovation at the Nexus of Food, Energy, and Water Systems program, through which she obtained a “Leaders in Sustainability” certification.
TECHNOLOGY
Critical Need
Rapid growth in the aerospace, renewable energy, and energy storage industries has accelerated demand for high-performance thermal management materials. While aerogels are extremely insulative, lightweight, and thin materials (making them ideal insulators across application spaces), high costs and stagnant innovation have hampered their wider adoption. This is due to the inefficient aerogel production process, which requires a pressurization process that increases production time and energy consumption—ultimately increasing costs. As a result, aerogel has had limited adoption outside high-value industries like aerospace, which accounts for only a fraction of the global insulation market.
Technology Vision
ZeroTherm is a scalable, breakthrough insulation that uses cutting-edge manufacturing technologies to reduce costs while maintaining the lightweight and insulative properties of aerospace-grade aerogel. Westwood Aerogel employs a proprietary manufacturing process that transitions aerogel from small-batch manufacturing to a continual production line, making aerogel cheap enough for use in emerging application spaces such as electric vehicle (EV) batteries and air taxis. ZeroTherm can seamlessly integrate into existing manufacturing lines or be used to retrofit existing systems, dramatically reducing energy consumption and improving thermal management.
Potential for Impact
ZeroTherm is industry agnostic and can be implemented across several verticals, including transportation and industrial heat management, two industries that, combined, account for over 60 percent of global CO₂ emissions. Westwood Aerogel is initially focusing on electrification uses, such as thermal management in EVs. Implementing ZeroTherm in EV batteries will reduce extreme temperature fluctuations, maintaining range and creating smaller batteries while enhancing safety and economy. Westwood Aerogel ultimately aims to revolutionize the global insulation market.
Website
Westwood Aerogel