Applied Separations Ships Aerogel System to NASA

Allentown, PA - Applied Separations has shipped a state-of-the-art supercritical fluid Aerogel drying system to NASA's Glen Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. The system introduces supercritical CO₂ to dissolve reactant solvents to cause the drying process to proceed without collapsing the network.

The fully stainless steel aerogel drying system is driven by a specialized, reliable air-driven pump capable of reaching pressures to 10,000 psi. The CO₂ is pumped through dual heaters into a specially designed drying vessel. Extra environmental safeguards have been built in such as the dynamic atmospheric expansion collector to ensure that there is no solvent escape to the atmosphere. The system is controlled by the operator's control panel with all data captured and logged with software that allows graphing, further manipulation and outputting to other platforms such as Microsoft Excel. It is compact and caster mounted for easy mobility.

Aerogels are highly porous materials with large internal surface area and large pore volumes. Their densities are as low as 3kg/m3 and their porosities are as high as 99.9%. This makes them excellent thermal insulators. Aerogels are produced with sol gel chemistry with their highly porous structure immersed in a solvent, usually ethanol. Drying of aerogels is usually performed in a supercritical state eliminating the liquid/vapor interface inside the pore and thereby avoiding the formation of capillary pressure which collapses the network.

Applied Separations is the manufacturer of a full line of supercritical systems for all markets with systems ranging in size from analytical scale to pilot plants to full scale production. For more information contact us via the web or write Applied Separations, Inc, 930 Hamilton St. Allentown, PA 18101, tel: 610-770-0900, fax: 610-740-5520