Fives Group and NOC Energy have announced a partnership to test high-temperature thermal battery technology for cement and supplementary cementitious material (SCM) production applications.
The project will integrate NOC Energy’s NOC Cell™ clean heat technology into the Fives FCB clay calcination pilot plant, with the aim of validating electrified high-temperature heat generation for low-clinker cement production.
According to the companies, a single 10MW NOC Cell™ module is capable of avoiding up to 20,000tpa of CO2 emissions by converting renewable electricity into industrial heat at temperatures of up to 1500°C. The system is designed to produce, store and discharge heat on demand, helping compensate for the intermittency of renewable electricity supply.
Fives said the demonstration project will focus initially on clay calcination, which is attracting growing interest as producers seek scalable SCMs to reduce clinker factors amid tightening slag and fly ash availability. The companies added that the technology could also potentially be deployed in fly ash and blastfurnace slag processing and, in the longer term, possibly rotary kiln applications.
Alain Cordonier, CEO of Fives FCB, said the project aimed to help bring the technology “to industrial maturity” and accelerate “the real decarbonisation of cement processes”.
Carlos Ceballos, CEO of NOC Energy, described the partnership as “a unique opportunity to demonstrate the effectiveness of our solution under conditions close to those of industrial operations”.
The project was announced during an Innovation Day event organised by Fives at its Research and Testing Center and attended by several European cement producers and sector specialists.
NOC Energy stated that the thermal battery system offers energy density “up to seven times higher” than many alternative technologies and claimed storage costs significantly below comparable lithium battery systems.
Schneider Electric is also supporting the initiative, particularly in electrification, automation and digitalisation aspects of the project.
