August 28th, 2015, Lavrion Technological and Cultural Park (LTCP), Attica NANO-HVAC GA no : Novel Nano-enabled Energy Efficient and Safe HVAC ducts and systems contributing to an healthier indoor environment Final Dissemination Conference Lavrio, 28 th August 2015 Nano-HVAC insulation product performance and its contribution to the reduction of energy losses in HVAC systems Heidi Van den Rul

August 28th, 2015, Lavrion Technological and Cultural Park (LTCP), Attica Background  Heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC)  Represent 33% of the energy used in commercial facilities  14% space heating  10 % space cooling  9% ventilation  Cooling % will increase  climate change  heat releasing equipment in buildings  Priority target:  Energy-efficient buildings  Ducts are not insulated well at the moment  Can loose up to 50% of the energy used to heat and cool

August 28th, 2015, Lavrion Technological and Cultural Park (LTCP), Attica nanoHVAC project  Novel nano-enabled energy efficient and safe HVAC ducts and systems contributing to a healthier indoor environment  Develop an innovative approach for ducts insulation  Safe, high insulating HVAC ducts  Minimizing heat/cool losses  Cost-effective, thin insulating duct layers  Applicable on circular ducts and square ducts  Automatic application

August 28th, 2015, Lavrion Technological and Cultural Park (LTCP), Attica  High efficient insulation  Heat conductivity < W/mK  Cost-effective insulation material  Light material  Density < 30 kg/m3  Automatically applicable  No manual wrapping  Sprayable or injectable casting  Curing time minimal  Fire resistant properties  Complying with the strictest EU standards (A1/A2 class)  Water and salt resistant o 50% saving in energy losses o 45% reduction in duct cost (compared to conventional insulated ducts) Requirements insulation material for HVAC tubes

August 28th, 2015, Lavrion Technological and Cultural Park (LTCP), Attica Traditional insulating materials? Material Mineral wool glass wool stone wool Organic foams polystyrene polyurethane heat conductivity30-45 W/mK temp. range of usewidelow temp. fire resistancex0 moisture resistance0x Need for inorganic material (fire resistant) with high insulation quality (thin layer) that can be sprayed/injected and is cheap

August 28th, 2015, Lavrion Technological and Cultural Park (LTCP), Attica High insulating materials  Insulating materials with heat conductivity < W/mK  VIPs vacuum insulations panels  Silica aerogels  High specific surface area, high porosity  Low density  High thermal insulation  But weak and brittle  aerogel composite materials  High production cost  developments towards lower costs  Moisture sensitive  Hydrophobic aerogels

August 28th, 2015, Lavrion Technological and Cultural Park (LTCP), Attica Development of innovative aeroclay-based insulating foams  Clay-based aerogels = aeroclays

August 28th, 2015, Lavrion Technological and Cultural Park (LTCP), Attica Clay minerals  Stacked sheet structures  Different combinations of tetrahedral and octahedral sheets form different clay minerals

August 28th, 2015, Lavrion Technological and Cultural Park (LTCP), Attica Aeroclay  Swelling of clay in a suspension  Maintain the expanded structure / avoid shrinking by freeze-drying  aeroclay  Structure with high amount of air  High porosity, very low density  Unexpensive raw materials  Good insulation properties  But: mechanically weak

August 28th, 2015, Lavrion Technological and Cultural Park (LTCP), Attica Aeroclay based composites  Addition of polymers/fibers increases the strength  In this project: combination of aeroclays with foamed inorganic binders  Inorganic binders:  Silicate binders (sodium silicate)  Polymerized silicate = silica gel = strength  Mechanical properties depend on various experimental parameters (hardener, type of silicate, viscosity, reaction speed…)  Formulation of foams  Using foaming agents (surfactants)  Using blowing agents (decomposing products producing gasses)  Addition of fibres to improve the mechanical properties

August 28th, 2015, Lavrion Technological and Cultural Park (LTCP), Attica Procedure Blowing agent Tensioactive additive pore stabilizer Catalyst + hardener  Prefoaming  Mixing the prefoam with binders and fillers  Spraying with catalysts incorporated through a nozzle  Casting in moulds  Curing

August 28th, 2015, Lavrion Technological and Cultural Park (LTCP), Attica Characterization of samples sampledensity (kg/m 3 ) thermal conductivity (mW/mK) compressive modulus (MPa) 0% aeroclay215375,0 1% aeroclay ,0 2% aeroclay % aeroclay % aeroclay new lab procedure ,1  Addition of aeroclay  reduces the density (2%)  reduces the thermal conductivity (2%)  But: reduces the mechanical properties

August 28th, 2015, Lavrion Technological and Cultural Park (LTCP), Attica Preparation of prototype ducts  Injection in double walled moulds  Scaling up problems  optimisation experiments  Density increases  Thermal conductivity increases  Availability of aeroclay

August 28th, 2015, Lavrion Technological and Cultural Park (LTCP), Attica Energy performance testing of prototypes in lab scale system  Three systems are constructed in a climate chamber environment at Sirris (Belgium), using a closed loop system and tubes that are  (i) not insulated,  (ii) insulated with mineral wool  and (iii) insulated with the new nanoHVAC material.  The insulation performance of the ducts is evaluated and compared in terms of temperature distribution and energy consumption.

August 28th, 2015, Lavrion Technological and Cultural Park (LTCP), Attica Energy performance testing - set-up  an air handling unit with heating feature and fan.  a control system to keep the temperature in the system at a constant level (a thermostat)  an identical set of air ducts of diameter 125 mm  Measurements devices:  Power consumption measurement of the heating element  Temperature measurement  Thermal camera to detect leaks and temperature losses

August 28th, 2015, Lavrion Technological and Cultural Park (LTCP), Attica 3 identical set-ups with same dimensions and same heating element/fan, inserted at same position Installed in a climate chamber, all at the same position for the evaluation Set-ups are installed above the ground Insulation gaps for nanoHVAC tubes are equalized with PUR foam, and because of small damages the nanoHVAC system is wrapped with Al tape Energy performance testing - set-up

August 28th, 2015, Lavrion Technological and Cultural Park (LTCP), Attica Energy performance testing - experiments  Cool down chamber to -5°C  Allow the tubes in this environment till the temperatures in the tube is -5°C  Put on the heating, heating up the air inside the tubes to a set value of 35°C  Keep the temperature at 35°C for 3h  Let the system cool down (no heating, only ventilation)  Monitor the power consumption and temperature  Analyse the heating up, steady state and cooling down period

August 28th, 2015, Lavrion Technological and Cultural Park (LTCP), Attica Energy performance testing - results

August 28th, 2015, Lavrion Technological and Cultural Park (LTCP), Attica Energy performance testing - thermal camera data Blank system Higher surface temperatures, much heat loss Wool system Heat losses at the heater + bends nanoHVAC system Heat losses at the heater

August 28th, 2015, Lavrion Technological and Cultural Park (LTCP), Attica Energy performance testing of full scale demonstrator in a demo building  2 full-scale Madrid  Reference – tubes insulated with mineral wool  Demo – tubes insulated with nanoHVAC material  Positioned to avoid shadowing effects  Thermal monitoring  identical U-values and composition

August 28th, 2015, Lavrion Technological and Cultural Park (LTCP), Attica Energy performance testing of full scale demonstrator - setup Pipes on rooftop

August 28th, 2015, Lavrion Technological and Cultural Park (LTCP), Attica Energy performance testing of full scale demonstrator – set-up  Reference mineral wool tubes  nanoHVAC insulated tubes

August 28th, 2015, Lavrion Technological and Cultural Park (LTCP), Attica Energy performance testing of full scale demonstrator – set-up

August 28th, 2015, Lavrion Technological and Cultural Park (LTCP), Attica Energy performance testing of full scale demonstrator - results

August 28th, 2015, Lavrion Technological and Cultural Park (LTCP), Attica Improvement of upscaling  To reduce density and heat conduction values of nanoHVAC material

August 28th, 2015, Lavrion Technological and Cultural Park (LTCP), Attica Improvement of upscaling

August 28th, 2015, Lavrion Technological and Cultural Park (LTCP), Attica Improvement of upscaling  Density decrease was obtained

August 28th, 2015, Lavrion Technological and Cultural Park (LTCP), Attica Improvement of upscaling

August 28th, 2015, Lavrion Technological and Cultural Park (LTCP), Attica Conclusions  A new insulation material was developed  Based on aeroclay + inorganic binders as foam  The new material has lower thermal conductivity values than mineral wool – on labscale  Upscaling the synthesis procedure resulted in an increased density and thermal conductivity for the material – the energy improvement of ducts insulated with the new material is comparable to ducts insulated with mineral wool  The upscaling procedure was optimized reducing the density again.  More improvements required before the material can be utilized in applications

August 28th, 2015, Lavrion Technological and Cultural Park (LTCP), Attica Thank you for your attention!