Climate Tech Firm Aeroseal Announced $67M in New Funding

Aeroseal, a company whose climate technology could be of interest to commercial real estate owners and operators, announced that it received $67 million in new funding. Leading the Series-B round were Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Climate Investment.

“Buildings are a critical, yet hard to decarbonize, sector, and Aeroseal’s technology is quickly making an immediate impact on emissions,” said Carmichael Roberts of Breakthrough Energy Ventures. “The company’s solution will make it easier to electrify both new and existing buildings by significantly reducing HVAC demand and mitigating wasted energy from conventional heating and cooling systems.”

The company says that its technology “delivers sticky polymers into a building’s air ducts and envelopes to create seals where manual sealing methods can’t.” This sounds somewhat analogous to having a flat tire on a car and using a canned inflator to get the vehicle mobile again to get to a repair shop. While no one is pumping air into a building’s HVAC ductwork, there is the similarity of using a sealant to plug holes so a system can work as it’s meant to.

“Ductwork, furnaces and air handlers should be sealed against air leakage,” writes Building Science Corporation in a paper posted by the Department of Energy. “The only place air should be able to leave the supply duct system and the furnace or air handling unit is at the supply registers.”

The National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) described the Aeroseal system, which was jointly developed with the U.S. government, in a paper, noting that it could seal small holes up to 0.5-inches in diameter.

“All supply registers and supply grilles are blocked off with foam plugs and adhesive tape, making a tight temporary seal. “The heat exchangers in the air handler unit must be blocked off with foam plugs to prevent the sealant from accumulating on these surfaces,” the paper continued. Blocking off the heat exchangers effectively isolates the duct system into two halves where only one half can be sealed at a time. Most case studies generally conclude this is the most time-consuming portion of the work; a case study in Minnesota estimates about 75% of labor for the technology is devoted to blocking and unblocking the registers and grilles.”

The Aeroseal equipment pressurizes the equipment to determine the air leakage. Then the polymer in aerosol form is introduced. It builds up on the holes, sealing them. Holes larger than a half inch must be separately sealed. Franchise operators with a relationship with Aeroseal perform the work.

“Aeroseal’s approach to reducing energy consumption in buildings by addressing air leakage is truly innovative and industry-leading,” said Marc Van Den Berg, Global Managing Director for Ventures at Climate Investment. “Its products have been proven to reduce energy consumption by an average of 30%, significantly impacting the environment and building operations.”