Calix electric reactor to heat salts in energy storage pilot

Industrial process technology company Calix has joined with Sweden’s SaltX and Sumitomo SHI FW to further develop a salt based energy storage system with potential to speed decarbonisation of the economy.

Calix’s novel kiln technology will be added to SaltX’s energy storage system in a 200kW pilot plant to be built in Sweden.

The pilot will be followed by a megawatt-scale small commercial plant should tests prove successful.

Calix’s advanced kiln designs are being used in a number of industries, including the Low Emissions Intensity Lime And Cement (LEILAC) demonstration plant now being built built in Heidelberg Germany

The company’s kiln technology will be utilised in a direct separation reactor (eDS) which will heat and dehydrate SaltX’s patented nanocoated salt when there is excess renewable energy. The salt is recombined with water to produce heat and power when needed.

The Calix system will be electrically powered and modelled on the BATMn reactor (pictured) which opened in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria in 2019.

Calix CEO Phil Hodgson said the project would further develop the company’s eDS technology in a new area of chemical energy storage.

Hodgson said: “This system has great potential for load balancing applications as the grid decarbonises.”

Calix’s core technologies are in advanced batteries, crop protection, aquaculture, wastewater and carbon reduction.

Picture: Calix/BATMn reactor

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