Aerogel Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2021 - 2026)

The Global Aerogel Market is projected to register a CAGR of over 10% during the forecast period (2021-2026).

Oil and gas is one of the major end-user industries of aerogels. Due to COVID-19, the oil and gas industry is negatively affected as the demand and price of the crude oil fell down. Global level lockdowns along with international travel bans and less transportation reduced the consumption of oil and thus the demand for fuel decreased. This resulted in less consumption of aerogel in the oil and gas industry. Also, many other major industries such as construction and automotive that uses aerogel are also impacted by the pandemic. According to OICA, global production of vehicles in the third quarter of 2020 is around 50 million a significant decrease compared to the production in third quarter of 2019 which is around 65 million. Owing to all these factors, aerogel market is negatively impacted by COVID-19. however, the situation is anticipated to recover in 2020, which will drive the demand for aerogel in the above mentioned sectors.

• In the medium term, major factors driving the market studied are a lighter and thinner alternative to conventional insulations, rise in adoption due to their reusability and recyclability.
• On the flip side, the high cost of production is expected to hinder the market.
• North America dominated the market across the globe owing to the technological advancement in the region followed by Asia-Pacific.

Key Market Trends

Silica Type to Dominate the Market

• Silica aerogel is one of the most common types of aerogel, and the most extensively used one. Currently, silica aerogel is commercially obtained using silica gel, or by using a modified Stober process.
• Upon exposure to an open environment, the silica content in silica aerogel solidifies into the three-dimensional structure and makes up about 3% of the volume. The remaining 97% of the volume is completely composed of air in extremely small nanopores. Hence, due to the presence of only 3% of solid content, conduction through the silica aerogel is extremely very low. Silica aerogels also have a high optical transmission of about 99% and a low refractive index of about 1.05.​
• Silica aerogel has low density, low thermal conductivity, low sound speed, low refractive index, and high transparency, which makes it suitable to be used for supercapacitors, water deionizers, sensors for gas detection, pollution filters, dielectric integrated circuits, absorbents, catalysis, matching layers for acoustical transducers, sound insulation, kinetic energy absorbers, sound insulation, impact protection, nuclear particle detectors, and many more.​
• The use of silica aerogel is gaining significant attention from the aerospace industry in recent years, due to its exceptional insulation properties and light-weight nature. According to Aerospace Industries Assiciation, the Aerospace & Defence industry posted strong annual growth with combined industry revenue amounting to USD 909 billion in 2019, a 6.7% increase from 2018 industry output.
• In the oil and gas industry, it is widely used in insulation packs for oil and gas subsea pipelines. In the construction industry, its application can be found in architectural panels, glass units, and tensile roofing systems, among other applications.​
• Hence, with increasing adoption of silica aerogel by various end-user industries, the demand for of silica aerogel is estimated to rapidly increase over the forecast period.

United States to dominate the North America Region

• The United States is expected to continue being the leading country in North America.
• Growing stringent environmental norms by the US government, growing awareness on eco-friendly products, and extensive research on product and process development to manufacture aerogel are the key factors helping the United States remain in the top position in the market studied. Thermal and acoustic insulation is the major application where the aerogel is highly used.
• The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is investing in innovative insulation material that saves energy and money for the industrial sector.
• Furthermore, with the rapidly growing building and construction, oil and gas industries, among others, the market studied in the United States is expected to rapidly increase over the forecast period.
• The United states has one of the world’s largest construction industries, and it recorded an annual revenue of USD 1,306 billion in 2019 (a decline of 0.1%, when compared to 2018). ​ The construction industry value has been on a constantly rising path between 2014 and 2018, despite witnessing a slight contraction in 2019. According to the US Census Bureau, the total residential housing units authorized by building permits in March were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,353,000 representing 5% growth over March 2019 rate of 1,288,000.
• According to the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae), residential houses construction jumped by 10% across 2020, with 1 million new homes expected to hit the market by the end of 2021. Even though the US construction sector has been declining in 2020, the industry is expected to start recover, thereby, increasing the demand for market during the forecast period.
• Moreover, the aerogel can be formed into monoliths or thin films for use in acoustic and thermal insulation, thin-film coatings, vibration damping, or anywhere structural foam is currently used in vehicles.
• The United States is the second-largest automotive manufacturer, after China, and it had a production of 10.9 million vehicles in 2019, however with about 3.7% decline. In the past five years, the country witnessed a robust growth in automobile production.
• After it registered a growth rate of 3.8% in 2015, the growth slowed down in the next consecutive years, due to excess inventory and low demand for passenger cars.
• In 2020, however, the industry witnessed further setback in automotive production as COVID-19 affected operations in the country. With this, the usage of aerogel in the automotive industry witnessed a slower growth in demand during the year.
• Owing to all these factors North America region is expected to dominate the market during the forecast period.

Competitive Landscape

The aerogel market is fragmented in nature. Some of the major players include BASF SE, Cabot Corporation, Green Earth Aerogel Technologies, Svenska Aerogel AB, and Aspen Aerogels, Inc., among others.

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