The new nucleic acid testing cabins produced by Huayang Group are now in use in Taiyuan. [Photo by Peng Ke'er/China Daily]

Nucleic acid testing cabins, which can easily be seen across Chinese cities, are now playing an important role in helping the country combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, in the hot summer, the high temperature in the cabins is still a severe challenge for the medics working inside, even with air conditioners.

A new solution offered by Shanxi-based Huayang Group is expected to solve the problem.

The first batches of such cabins are now in use in Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi province. And users said this is one of the most considerate solutions for medics' health in the hot and humid environment of summer.

The offering from Huayang is a complete solution that includes the use of aerogel as walling material and an integrated ventilation and air-conditioning system.

Wang Jing, a nurse who is among the first users of the nucleic acid testing cabins, compared the new product with traditional ones.

"In the past, we needed to wear the stuffy protective clothing to collect saliva samples from residents," Wang said. "This meant we had to endure extremely high temperatures and humidity inside the clothing."

And now, working in a totally enclosed environment that is made possible by a cutting-edge integrated ventilation and air-conditioning system, she does not need to wear protective clothing anymore. Furthermore, the aerogel walling material keeps a constantly lower temperature inside the cabin, making shifts more comfortable for medics.

According to Duan Xinyong, a researcher at Huayang Group, the integrated ventilation and air-conditioning system is developed by Huayang's partnership with Shanghai-based Donghua University and Zhejiang-based Furuibang New Materials Technology. And the aerogel walling material is a cutting-edge, patented product developed by Huayang itself.

In addition, the cabin is also equipped with electrical-heating graphene flooring, which can be used in winter to further improve indoor heating and reduce energy consumption.

Duan said aerogel is a new material that can substantially increase the insulating performance of structures.

Aerogel used to be a high-tech material mostly used in the aerospace industry. The domestic market had been dominated by overseas suppliers, and the price of the material was as high as 1.2 million yuan ($179,840) per metric ton before 2018, according to industry insiders.

Huayang Group, based in the Shanxi city of Yangquan, was one of the Chinese pioneers able to break the overseas monopoly in the domestic market. It began to develop aerogel products in 2018 and founded Asia's largest aerogel manufacturing enterprise－Yangzhong New Materials－in Yangquan, in cooperation with Zhongning Aerogel Technology based in Shenzhen, Guangdong province.

"With a density just 2.7 times that of air, the aerogel we produce is superlight in weight and high in heat-insulation and flame-resistance performance," said Duan.

Huayang-made nucleic acid testing cabins are first being used in Taiyuan and are expected to be incorporated into other regions in Shanxi and the rest of the country in the near future, according to Duan.

Peng Ke'er contributed to this story.