Insulation materials are used in almost all areas. Today, they are often made from non-sustainable materials such as polyester, glass wool or foams. In most cases, these products have to be disposed of at great expense and are difficult or impossible to recycle. The use of bio-based aerogel fibre insulation materials should help to make a wide range of applications more sustainable and thus reduce the overall carbon footprint of the product while increasing its insulation performance.

Aerogels are highly porous materials that can consist of 99.8% air and therefore provide a high level of thermal insulation while minimising weight and material thickness. Aerogels therefore offer innovative solutions for a wide range of applications. In the textile and construction industries, for example, aerogels make it possible to minimise heat loss and thus improve the energy efficiency of textiles and buildings. To date, aerogels have primarily been produced in the form of inorganic sheets (so-called monoliths) or as a fabric coating. The disadvantages of these aerogel products are that their production processes are very resource-intensive and time-consuming and they are difficult to handle and process due to their brittleness. In addition, they are only recyclable to a very limited extent, making them unsustainable overall. To date, aerogel-based insulations have been niche products, as they cannot compete with conventional insulations in terms of price. The ITA has succeeded in developing a cost-effective and industrially scalable manufacturing process for insulating textiles made from 100 % aerogel fibres.  Cellulose aerogel textiles are not only sustainable, but also very flexible and drapable compared to conventionally rigid or brittle aerogel products, which means that they can also be processed on conventional textile machines. The development at the ITA promises a new, globally unique, sustainable, highly efficient insulation material that combines the advantages of textiles (flexibility & good processability) with those of aerogels (very low weight & very good thermal insulation).