31.10.2023 | News
Coolbrook’s technology electrifies industrial processes and offers the potential to replace the burning of fossil fuels and enable significant decarbonisation.
Nefco – the Nordic Green Bank – has granted loan financing for Coolbrook Oy, a Finnish technology and engineering company. Coolbrook’s groundbreaking technology has the potential to electrify industrial sectors that until now have been considered almost impossible to electrify. The Nefco investment will support the commercialisation and scale-up of RotoDynamic Heater technology, which can be used to decarbonise high-temperature industrial processes.
Hard-to-abate industries, such as steel, iron, cement, petrochemicals and chemicals, are responsible for over 60% of the total CO2 emissions from industry. Industrial processes require high temperatures, which are almost exclusively achieved by burning fossil fuels.
Coolbrook’s proprietary RotoDynamic technology utilises electricity and harnesses rotational kinetic energy to produce the extreme heat required for many heavy industrial processes. The technology has two main applications: the RotoDynamic Reactor, which could be used to achieve 100% CO2-free olefin production, and the RotoDynamic Heater, which provides a carbon-free heating process for iron, steel, cement and chemicals production.
“Coolbrook’s revolutionary technology has the power to transform fossil-heavy industrial processes. Together with our partners, we are rolling out the technology to support heavy industries in their decarbonisation goals. We are very pleased to work with Nefco as we accelerate towards the commercial launch of our technology,” said Mikko Jaatinen, CFO, Coolbrook.
While the supply of green electricity is abundant, existing electrical heating technologies have trouble achieving very high temperatures. Coolbrook’s RotoDynamic technology is currently the only electric heating technology with the potential to reach 1,700°C without the use of fossil fuels. Reaching those temperatures would enable it to replace fossil-fired furnaces and kilns in industrial processes.
“Coolbrook’s technology has the potential to be the game changer in replacing fossil fuels with electricity for high-temperature industrial processes. There is a high level of interest from large industrial companies, which highlights the need to find solutions that can decarbonise heavy industries at scale. We are pleased to contribute to the commercialisation of Coolbrook’s RotoDynamic Heater technology,” comments Helena Lähteenmäki, Investment Director, Nefco.
Coolbrook is conducting research and development activities in Finland, the Netherlands and the UK. The RotoDynamic technology is currently undergoing a large-scale pilot phase in the Netherlands, demonstrating its performance across various industrial sectors. The next milestone is to deploy the technology in initial commercial demonstration projects at customer sites in 2024, while full commercial deployment is expected to start around 2025.
For more information, please contact:
Helena Lähteenmäki, Investment Director, Nefco
helena.lahteenmaki@nefco.int, +358 10 6180 633
Mikko Jaatinen, CFO, Coolbrook Oy
mikko.jaatinen@coolbrook.com
About Coolbrook
Named Tech Champion 2022 in the Manufacturing category by The Financial Times, Coolbrook is a transformational technology and engineering company on a mission to decarbonise major industrial sectors, such as petrochemicals, chemicals, iron, steel and cement. Coolbrook’s revolutionary rotator technology combines space science, turbomachinery and chemical engineering to replace the use of fossil fuels across all major industrial sectors. The technology has two main applications: the RotoDynamic ReactorTM (RDRTM), which could be used to achieve 100% CO2-free olefin production, and the RotoDynamic HeaterTM (RDHTM), which provides a carbon-free heating process for iron, steel, cement and chemicals production. Once implemented at scale, the RotoDynamic Technology has the potential to achieve temperatures of 1,700°C and cut 2.4 billion tons (30%) of annual CO2 emissions in heavy industries. For more information, please visit www.coolbrook.com.