The world consumes over four billion tons of cement each year, making it second only to water as the most heavily consumed substance on Earth. Cement production creates roughly 8% of global carbon dioxide emissions because it involves burning lots of fossil fuels to create the necessary heat to form it as well as because heating the limestone in it releases greenhouse gases.
The greenhouse gas impact of cement production can be reduced by using clean electricity to produce the required heat rather than by burning fossil fuels. A Boston-based company called Electrified Thermal Solutions is going to deploy two of its heat batteries at a cement plant run by the global cement company Holcim.
Electrified Thermal Solutions is a spin-out from MIT. It has developed a commercial-scale thermal battery. The device runs electricity through insulated stacks of metal-oxide firebricks, heating them up. The system uses grid electricity during off-peak hours, when wind, solar, and other carbon-free sources are often most abundant. The firebricks basically store the heat, which can then be released by flowing air over them and then piping the resulting hot gas directly into the industrial equipment used to make cement.
Another heat battery company, Rondo Energy, is also working to decarbonize cement production. Its system doesn’t directly supply heat but rather produces superhot steam to drive a turbine, which then generates electricity for the cement plant. There are nearly two dozen startup companies developing systems that can supply clean industrial heat, or store and discharge electricity back to the grid.
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References:
In a first, cement giant to tap thermal batteries for cleaner heat
