Vacuum Insulation Panels

  Vacuum Insulation Panels or VIPs consist of a rigid core encapsulated in a gas-tight envelope from which air is evacuated. The envelope prevents air from reentering and the core keeps the walls from collapsing. The encapsulated vacuum greatly reduces heat conduction and convection; therefore, it is desirable for the core to be highly micro(nano)porous while maintaining exceptional structural integrity. 
        During Phase I work funded by the U.S. Dept of Agriculture, Mayaterials produced robust cores and complete VIPs, as shown in the photos below, with a high thermal resistance of R-20/in. Current home insulation materials, such as polystyrene and polyurethane, have R-values of 3-7/in.
        The novel core materials for our VIPs have a very low-density, 0.35 - 0.55 g/cm3, and are derived from the agricultural byproduct rice hull ash (RHA). RHA is an abundant, 100 M ton/yr worldwide, agricultural waste material produced from burning rice hulls often with co-generation of electricity, which is also a byproduct of rice production.
        These successes have led to a Phase II award from the USDA starting September 30th, 2010 to scale the facile processing techniques to produce large cores and optimize envelope technology. The ease of manufacture and low-cost starting materials combined with the potential energy savings make these VIPs an economically competitive green technology. We have already lowered our densities to ≤ 0.30 g/cm3 which should equate to R values of 25-35.