Global Cement: The Joule Hive: Thermal energy without fuels
March 18, 2026
Electrified Thermal Solutions is pioneering the future of zero-carbon industrial heat cheaper than natural gas. Developed at MIT and backed by global industrials such as Holcim, Vale and ArcelorMittal, the electrically and thermally conductive bricks at the heart of Electrified Thermal’s Joule Hive™ Thermal Battery represent a step-change improvement in electric heating technology in terms of high-temperature performance, ease of grid integration and reliability. The company’s thermal battery converts and stores electricity as heat, delivering unprecedented near-flame temperatures (up to 1,800°C / 3,275°F), offering industrial heat cheaper than fossil fuels.
We work with existing brick manufacturers so we can deploy at scale today.
Our innovation is the electrically-conductive firebrick, the heart of the Joule Hive thermal battery (JHTB). This innovation enables two characteristics with profound implications for decarbonizing industry globally. The first is that the electrically conductive firebrick is the first heating element that can convert electricity to temperatures up to 1,800°C that can scale to electrify the highest temperature, hardest to abate sectors including steel, cement, glass, chemicals. The second is that these high temperatures correlate to unprecedented energy density which enables the cost-effective storage of that thermal energy with >95% efficiency and therefore cheap off-peak electricity can be used to bring the cost of decarbonizing below or close to parity with existing fossil fuel sources.
The Joule Hive thermal battery is a stack of electrically conductive firebricks in an insulated steel container and an electrical balance of plant. The JHTB charges by running electricity directly through the bricks to joule-heat them up to 1800°C, the thermal energy is stored at that temperature, and then the system is discharged by running air or another gas through the brick channels to provide heat to any furnace, boiler, turbine, or kiln.
