Thermal energy storage (TES) technology provider Antora Energy has announced a 5.8GWh “multi-day” TES project at Pratt Energy’s biorefinery in Pratt, Kansas, US.
Announced 1 October, the project’s third-party equity financing was led by Danish investment firm Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP). Australian investment firm Grok Ventures and University Pension Plan Ontario (UPP) also participated.
Antora’s TES systems store energy as heat within solid carbon blocks, reaching temperatures of up to 2,400°C. The technology charges by converting electricity into heat through resistive heating of the carbon material, which possesses high thermal conductivity that enables rapid charging. The stored energy can be retained for several days to support continuous industrial operations.
The company has engineered thermophotovoltaic (TPV) technology that transforms light emitted from the heated carbon blocks back into electricity.
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This approach enables factories and processing facilities to procure electricity during off-peak pricing periods or charge using on-site renewable generation, lowering operational costs whilst mitigating greenhouse gas emissions associated with industrial heating and cooling applications.
With this specific deployment in Kansas, Antora is delivering heat directly to the biorefinery’s industrial processes, rather than electricity.
Antora claimed that its TES project is expected to use little additional water beyond the biorefinery’s existing operations and operate without increasing noise levels for neighbouring properties. The project is expected to create and support over 100 construction and operations jobs.
The company also stated that the project will help meet Kansas’ energy demand without increasing power bills for homes or businesses.
In July, Antora closed a US$550 million Series C funding round to accelerate deployment of its TES systems for industrial facilities and data centres.
This followed the May deployment of the company’s 5GWh Project Big Stone, located at a biofuels production plant in Big Stone City, South Dakota, operated by POET Bioprocessing.
Antora’s San Jose, California site has been developed into a three-building manufacturing campus. The company employs welders, electricians, pipefitters, and machinists, with the company stating that its deployments have generated and sustained hundreds of manufacturing and construction positions.
Thermal storage presently constitutes a small portion of the broader energy storage market but is gaining traction, particularly in industrial sectors with hard-to-abate emissions, such as those requiring higher-temperature heat than can typically be provided through the electrification of existing processes.
In May, MGA Thermal and Knode initiated a Front-End Engineering and Design (FEED) study for a 195MWh TES system at Tronox’s Kwinana facility in Western Australia.
In August, Toshiba Group company EtaPRO deployed its monitoring, digital twin and predictive analytics technology at MGA Thermal’s 5MWh TES demonstration plant in Tomago, New South Wales.
Institutional infrastructure investor CIP, meanwhile, recently announced its fourth large-scale battery energy storage system (BESS) in Scotland. The project has a planned output/capacity of 350MW/1,400MWh.
Since publication, this article has been updated to properly reflect the use of Antora’s technology in this project.
