Covestro is partnering with Rondo Energy to install a heat battery for the first time. The Rondo Heat Battery stores intermittent renewable electricity and delivers continuous high-temperature steam, thus offers a sustainable alternative to steam generation with fossil fuels, according to a June 27 news release from Covestro.
The Breakthrough Energy Catalyst foundation set up by Bill Gates and the European Investment Bank (EIB) are supporting this installation of the Rondo RHB100 heat battery, which is scheduled to begin operation at Covestro’s Brunsbüttel site at the end of 2026. The project will then produce 10% of the steam required at the site, saving up to 13,000 tons of CO2 emissions per year, Covestro said.
Rondo Heat Batteries combine century-old materials and new automation technologies to capture electricity and deliver high-temperature heat and power. Electrical energy is stored as heat, using bricks that have been used for heat storage at steel mills for centuries. The heat powers an ordinary boiler to deliver zero-emission steam. Renewable electricity can be intermittently stored when there is an excess available and a constant amount of steam can still be generated continuously.
"As an innovation company, we are always excited when we can further develop and test promising ideas that can bring us closer to our goals of a circular economy and climate-neutral production," says Thorsten Dreier, CTO of Covestro. “The heat battery is such an idea: a new technology that allows us to go one step further on our way to a sustainable future.”