The parent company of Virginia-based Titan America joined a venture capital funding round for Rondo Energy, whose “heat battery” technology holds promise for decarbonizing cement production and power generation.
Rondo will use the $20 million-plus Series A funding to establish its first manufacturing lines, proceed with industrial demonstrations, and develop services for both heavy industry and energy producers.
The modular Rondo Heat Battery uses established methods to transform renewable electricity into heat at 98% efficiency, exhibiting high scalability potential that’s cost competitive to current energy storage technology. In addition to supplying heat at temperatures of up to 1,500°C, the battery can store renewable energy generated during off-peak hours, ensuring grid load flexibility and achieving additional greenhouse gas emissions savings.
Titan Cement will work in a technological partnership with Rondo to develop new concepts for decarbonizing industrial production, including cement. “Combining our expertise in sustainable and digitized manufacturing and our entrepreneurial approach to innovation, with Rondo’s breakthrough technology and globally unique partner ecosystem, we are confident that we can play a leading role in building the infrastructure of the future and accelerating the roadmap towards carbon neutrality of the construction value chain,” said Fokion Tasoulas, group innovation and technology director of Titan Cement Group.
Rondo’s heat battery concept could prove of particular importance to Titan and peer operators abiding carbon neutrality roadmaps. As energy transfer can take place using kiln flue gases, the carbon-neutral, high temperature heat can be used to produce clinker, as well as for the thermal activation of minerals and by-products, alleviating a significant part of the emissions originating from fossil fuels burning.
Furthermore, the heat battery can become a critical component of novel energy-intensive processes for decarbonization, such as carbon capture, green hydrogen generation and conversion of captured CO2.
