A Malaysian scientist says she has discovered a cheap way to turn discarded rice husks into a high-tech material that could play a key role in reducing carbon emissions, protect buildings from bomb blasts and make airplanes lighter.
Aerogel, the lightest solid known to man, was invented in 1931 by a US scientist, but its high cost has limited its use.
Halimaton Hamdan, a University of Cambridge-trained chemistry professor, says her process cuts the cost of producing aerogel by 80 percent, making it so affordable that it could become a commonplace material with widespread use.
Her process is experimental and several years away from commercial use. The Malaysian government is funding a US$62.5 million project at Halimaton's university in the southern town of Skudai to try to demonstrate that it can be produced on a large scale.
Halimaton said 100g would cost US$60 to make, compared with US$300 for conventional methods.
The greatest potential lies in coating walls of homes with aerogel, Halimaton says, which could dramatically reduce the need for both heating and air conditioning. Aerogel provides 37 times more effective insulation than traditional fiberglass, said ICE Circle, a British nonprofit group that promotes new technologies to fight climate change.
"I hope one day this product will be used by a variety of industries and benefit mankind," Halimaton said in her one-story laboratory at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.
Scientific colleagues say her work is promising.
She "seems to have found a miracle solution" to make aerogel cheaply, said Vincent Blech, a scientist at the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation in Tokyo.
Dieter Freude, a physics professor at the University of Leipzig in Germany who is familiar with Halimaton's work, said it constituted "an exciting breakthrough."
Nicknamed "frozen smoke" because of its cloudy appearance, aerogel is made from silica, the basic ingredient in sand, and is 99 percent air by volume. The result is a nearly weightless and translucent material.
What makes aerogel so attractive is the combination of light weight with incredible strength and insulating properties.
Aerogel can withstand mechanical pressure 2,000 times its own weight, making it suitable for bombproof panels. Aerogel can also absorb oil spills and pollutants in the air.
Halimaton has dubbed her product "Maerogel" -- Malaysian aerogel.
At a British invention convention last year, she was discovered by ICE Circle founder Renu Mehta, who encouraged Halimaton to try to develop the product commercially.
"It should feature prominently in strategies to reduce greenhouse gas carbon emissions," Mehta said.
It took Halimaton seven years to perfect the system.
"I knew it was going to work. It was only a matter of time before I found a way to do it," she said. "As a scientist you lose sleep over a problem. You keep thinking how it can work. And at the spur of the moment, the answer comes to you."
TURNAROUND: The Liberal Party had trailed the Conservatives by a wide margin, but that was before Trump threatened to make Canada the US’ 51st state Canada’s ruling Liberals, who a few weeks ago looked certain to lose an election this year, are mounting a major comeback amid the threat of US tariffs and are tied with their rival Conservatives, according to three new polls. An Ipsos survey released late on Tuesday showed that the left-leaning Liberals have 38 percent public support and the official opposition center-right Conservatives have 36 percent. The Liberals have overturned a 26-point deficit in six weeks, and run advertisements comparing the Conservative leader to Trump. The Conservative strategy had long been to attack unpopular Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but last month he
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
ECONOMIC DISTORTION? The US commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Elon Musk’s arguments that spending by the government does not create value for the economy US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that government spending could be separated from GDP reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn. “You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.” Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because
RSS