"Thermulon is a start-up company headquartered in the North East of England, creating novel chemical processes to produce **high-performance building insulation materials**. Created in part in response to the Grenfell Tower tragedy of 2017, Thermulon started by exploring why flammable plastic based insulation is used and what the current alternatives are.

Insulation is installed as panels, batts and blankets within the wall, roof and floor structure, applied specifically to reduce heat loss. The material achieves this through its internal structure, consisting of a high volume fraction of nanopores with inherently low thermal conductivity which thereby limits conductive and convective losses through the material.

Successive UK governments have committed to reducing CO2 emissions from buildings, with over 30% of the UK's carbon emissions originating from fossil fuels used to heat homes and offices. In June 2019, the commitment to cut down emissions was galvanised with the pledge to reach **carbon-neutrality by 2050**. Cutting down on emissions from buildings (operational as well as embodied carbon) is necessary to achieve this target.

Building regulations have been increasingly tightened to reduce thermal losses from buildings (consolidated in Building Regulations 2010; as amended). For a given thermal conductivity, thermal performance can only be improved by increasing the layer thickness. Therefore builders are using thicker and thicker insulating materials to meet the regulatory requirements; reducing living space.

Plastic-based insulation materials are used due to their high thermal efficiency, minimising the layer thickness, however they are combustible and non-breathable. This means they cannot be used on solid-wall or heritage buildings due to damp issues. This leaves the 7.7 million UK solid-wall homes with few insulation options.

Some home-owners are willing to take up significant internal floorspace by installing low-performance mineral-wool style materials, but the majority just pay the high heating bills, keeping their homes uninsulated at large monetary and carbon cost (~£435/year / 1770kg CO2; detached house).

Thermulon has developed a new manufacturing process for aerogel materials which have excellent thermal properties and are inherently **non-combustible and breathable**. Working with The Welding Institute (TWI Ltd.), Thermulon will scale these materials up to produce a cost-effective insulation material for the construction sector, to be incorporated into a space-saving insulating render/plaster for use on solid-wall buildings; **saving home-owners money and reducing their carbon footprint.**"