Technology with roots going back to the Bronze Age may offer a fast and inexpensive solution to help achieve the United Nations climate goal
The technology involves assembling heat-absorbing bricks in an insulated container, where they can store heat generated by solar or wind power for later use at the temperatures required for industrial processes. The heat can then be released when needed by passing air through channels in the stacks of "firebricks," thus allowing cement, steel, glass, and paper factories to run on renewable energy even when wind and sunshine are unavailable.
These systems, which several companies have recently begun to commercialize for industrial heat storage, are a form of thermal energy storage. The bricks are made from the same materials as the insulating bricks that lined primitive kilns and iron-making furnaces thousands of years ago. To optimize for heat storage instead of insulation, the materials are combined in different amounts.
Batteries can store electricity from renewable sources and provide electricity to generate heat on demand. "The difference between firebrick storage and battery storage is that the firebricks store heat rather than electricity and are one-tenth the cost of batteries," said lead study author Mark Z. Jacobson, a professor of civil and environmental engineering in the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability and School of Engineering. "The materials are much simpler too. They are basically just the components of dirt."
