Cold service insulation fails in a way that hot service does not. On a hot line, a defect shows up as heat loss and someone eventually notices the fuel bill. On a cold line, water vapour drives inward through any breach, condenses, freezes, and progressively destroys the system from the inside while the outside still looks perfect. By the time ice is visible on the cladding, the damage underneath is extensive.
This is why cold service specification should start with the vapour barrier rather than the conductivity table. A material with an outstanding lambda value and a field-built vapour barrier will underperform a slightly worse material whose barrier is applied in a factory.
Where aerogel changes the outcome
- The vapour barrier is integral to the blanket, so the critical layer does not depend on site workmanship in the way a wrapped barrier does
- No contraction joints are needed, removing a designed-in family of vapour paths
- Flexibility lets valves, flanges and small bore pipe be dressed properly instead of boxed in
- Much lighter than cellular glass, which matters on long supported runs
- Does not fracture on handling, so site breakage waste is far lower
Typical scope
- Liquefaction trains and storage tank pipework
- Regasification and send-out systems
- Ethylene and ammonia cold sections
- Cold boxes and cryogenic separation units
- LNG bunkering and marine fuel gas systems
- Liquid nitrogen, oxygen and argon distribution
Products for this sector
- Aerogel Blanket AB-C200 - flexible cryogenic blanket with integral vapour barrier
- Pipe Section PS-Cold - pre-formed shells for straight runs
Talk to us about your project
Send us your line list, drawings or target U-values and we will come back with a thickness recommendation, a bill of material and a quotation. Contact our technical team.