Engineers deploy ‘first-of-its-kind’ electrified heating system for cement works

LOW-CARBON technology firm CoolBrook and partners ABB will deploy electrified industrial heating technology to a cement works in Andhra Pradesh, India.

With ABB providing the electrical components, the firms have developed a first-of-a-kind system, called the RotoDynamic Heater (RDH), which they say can heat gases to up to 1,700 ℃ and replace fossil fuel use in industrial heating.

The RDH has been in development for the last couple years, and this deployment at Adani Cement’s Boyareddypalli Integrated Cement Plant represents CoolBrook’s plan to implement its technology on an industrial scale.

Joonas Rauramo, CEO of Coolbrook, said: “As producers intensify efforts to cut emissions while maintaining operational reliability, scalable electrification solutions are becoming central to long-term investment decisions.”

Industry applications

The RDH has already been used in the steel industry, another sector moving rapidly toward electrification, where Coolbrook found it was more energy efficient in recycling waste heat and gas compared with traditional steelmaking processes.

In the system, air, nitrogen and process gases are heated to high temperatures and are then used outside the heater as industrial heating. Compared with fossil fuel-based heating, the system does not produce CO2, NOx and SOx emissions. Coolbrook also said that the system is compact and easily integratable into existing plant infrastructure.

At the Adani plant, the RDH is expected to directly reduce 60,000 t/y of emissions, with potential for further increases.

Switch to electrification

Industrial heating accounts for around 18% of global emissions, with demand servicing the world's largest manufacturing sectors, including steel, automotives, glass and cement.

With the ongoing conflict in the Strait of Hormuz, industry’s reliance on fossil fuels for heating has proven volatile through fluctuating energy prices and accessibility.

Electrification in industry is being quickly adopted, though bottlenecks remain in policy, high electricity prices and the slow grid connection pipeline.

A recent report from the University of Oxford has called for more grid investment in electricity and carbon pricing reform as measures to encourage a quicker transition to electrified processes.