Hydrophilic environmentally friendly process for low-cost production of nano-aerogel materials. "Shengrun New Materials" has received Pre-A round financing from Northern Light Venture Capital. | 36Kr Exclusive

36Kr has learned that the aerogel material manufacturer "Ningbo Shengrun New Materials Co., Ltd." has recently completed the Pre-A round of financing, led by Northern Light Venture Capital, with the Ningbo Angel Fund participating. The funds from this round of financing will be used for production line construction and new product research and development.

Ningbo Shengrun New Materials Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Shengrun New Materials") was established in 2022. It is an aerogel material and system solution provider integrating advanced material process research and development, product application development, advanced production line design, and mature system solutions. The company is an enterprise introduced by the Ningbo Institute of Fudan University and has also been selected into the Ningbo "Yongjiang Talent" program.

Aerogel is a unique gel. Through processes such as the sol-gel method, the gas replaces the liquid in the gel, and finally takes on a solid form. However, it has a nanoporous structure and high porosity inside, like "frozen smoke", and is one of the solid materials with the lowest density currently.

In the application field, due to the characteristics of aerogel, such as extremely low density, ultra-high porosity, low refractive index, low thermal conductivity, and low acoustic impedance, which far exceed those of general solid materials, it is a revolutionary alternative material for thermal insulation in many fields such as aerospace, energy, petrochemical, power, metallurgy, and construction.

The project leader of "Shengrun New Materials", Jin Chengli, is a senior technical expert in the field of aerogel materials in China. He has 19 years of industry experience in the field of aerogel materials, holds more than 50 patents, and has built China's first atmospheric pressure drying aerogel production line and the first carbon dioxide supercritical drying aerogel production line.

Currently, "Shengrun New Materials" has applied for more than 40 patents, of which more than 20 have been authorized. It has passed ISO9001, 14001, 45001 certifications and IATF16949 certification. Its products are widely used in aerospace, high-speed rail, new energy vehicles, power energy, petrochemical, building materials and metallurgy, and building energy conservation and other fields.

On November 26, 2024, the "30,000 Cubic Meters per Year Environmental Protection Process High-Performance Aerogel Material Project of Shengrun New Materials" was filed on the Online Approval and Supervision Platform for Investment Projects in Zhejiang Province. The total investment of the project is 120 million yuan, and the plant area is 13,000 square meters. The products include aerogel insulation blankets, aerogel battery insulation sheets, aerogel coatings, aerogel pipe shells, aerogel insulation bricks, etc.

On the same day, the opening ceremony of the new park of Ningbo Haichuang Group and the investment promotion conference were held. Seven projects signed contracts to settle in the two newly opened parks. The fifth-generation water-based environmental protection process developed by "Shengrun New Materials" has become the biggest highlight of this settlement project, targeting the two pain points of environmental protection and production costs.

Since aerogel materials generally obtain nanoporous structures by the sol-gel method and obtain products by compounding fiber materials, aging, modification, drying, etc., the traditional process raw and auxiliary materials contain hazardous chemicals, which need to enter the chemical industrial park. The equipment investment is large, and the production cost is high, which restricts the development of the aerogel material industry.

On the other hand, although some studies have controlled the production cost by using low-cost raw materials and optimizing the process, how to further reduce the cost and improve the utilization efficiency of raw materials while maintaining the material properties unchanged is an ongoing challenge for the industry.

The fifth-generation water-based environmental protection process pioneered by "Shengrun New Materials" first breaks through the environmental protection and safety issues. Compared with the existing chemical process, this process uses non-hazardous chemicals as raw materials, reducing the safety risks in the production process. At the same time, the application of the water-based environmental protection process significantly reduces the wastewater and exhaust gas emissions during the production process. It is in line with the current trend of green production and the long-term goal of energy conservation and emission reduction.

In addition, "Shengrun New Materials" has also taken a big step in "improving quality and efficiency". Due to its environmental protection characteristics, the fifth-generation water-based environmental protection process does not need to be located in the chemical industrial park for production, which greatly reduces the entry threshold for enterprises, reduces the cumbersome environmental protection procedures, improves the production efficiency, and thus speeds up the time from product research and development to the market. Through optimizing the process and equipment investment, the production cost is significantly reduced, improving the market competitiveness of the product and bringing greater economic benefits to the enterprise.

More importantly, while reducing the production cost, the fifth-generation water-based environmental protection process also ensures the high quality and superior performance of the aerogel material, meeting the needs of various fields for high-performance materials.

"Shengrun New Materials" has currently built an aerogel material production line with an annual output of 10,000 cubic meters. According to statistics, compared with the existing chemical process, the equipment investment has decreased by 40%, the production cost has decreased by about 40%, and the construction period has been shortened by 50%. The operating temperature of the aerogel product has increased from 650°C to 1200°C, and the product types have expanded from insulation blankets to insulation boards, insulation coatings, insulation bricks, and nano-cold-proof fabrics, greatly enriching the product category of aerogel materials.

On September 27, 2024, the "Low-Cost Production of Nano-Aerogel Materials by the Water-Based Environmental Protection Process of Shengrun New Materials" won the third prize in the enterprise group of the National Finals of the 9th "Maker China" Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition for SMEs in the New Materials Field.

Aerogel is regarded as a basic strategic and cutting-edge new material of the country, and it is of great strategic significance for reducing carbon emissions and achieving the "dual carbon" goals. In the future, with the advancement of the "dual carbon" policy, especially the implementation of the "2024 - 2025 Energy Conservation and Carbon Reduction Action Plan", the aerogel industry will have an explosive development opportunity.

The improvement of environmental protection and economic benefits makes the fifth-generation water-based environmental protection process of "Shengrun New Materials" expected to become the new standard in the aerogel industry, promoting the technological progress and industrial upgrading of the entire industry.