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Malaysian scientist turns farm waste into a miracle gel

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."
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