Hardware · Updated 22 Oct, 04:07 am IST
Rio Tinto and Rondo plan giant hot‑brick heat battery at Yarwun refinery
Why it matters for readers: It’s an example of using cheap daytime electricity to run factories more cleanly by storing heat instead of only storing electricity.
- Rio Tinto and California-based Rondo Energy are studying a large hot‑brick thermal energy storage system near Gladstone, Queensland.1
- The system heats refractory bricks with electricity, stores energy as heat, and later uses that heat to produce steam for the refinery’s existing steam network.1
- Rio Tinto estimates the battery could supply about 5% of Yarwun refinery’s steam needs.1
- Rio Tinto says the project could reduce the refinery’s direct emissions by around 67,000 metric tons of CO2 each year by replacing some coal and natural gas use.1
- Rondo calls the project Australia’s largest planned thermal energy storage project and a first for the alumina industry, though it remains at the study stage.1
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