Finalist Electrified Thermal Pitches at Startup Battlefield | TechCrunch Disrupt 2023

From Medford Massachusetts comes Electrified thermal Solutions prevent Presenting for electrified thermal Solutions is Donnie Smith and Daniel Stack give a round of applause My name is Dan Stack co-founder and CEO Of electrified thermal Solutions We're working every day to decarbonize The hottest Industries with electrified Heat Thank you Thank you So we have a massive problem today there Is no affordable way to decarbonize our Heavy Industries talking cement steel Glass what makes the chairs you're Sitting in the walls of this building it All requires a tremendous amount of Energy and that energy needs to be three Things cheap reliable and hot Flame temperatures in many cases as you See on the screen here so our zero Carbon energy sources are just one out Of the three they're cheap And that's already remarkable but it Doesn't run a 24 7 cement plant or a Steel plant as soon as you try to make It into reliable heat you lose the cheap Part say if you want to make hydrogen With it use 6X the cost which won't work So we need a new approach and that is Why we founded electrified thermal Solutions and it is why we've been Developing the jewel Hive thermal

Battery with this system we take in Electricity from solar wind nuclear or Hydro when it's cheap or abundant or Available we turn it into heat into our Box and we make hot gas with it that can Run your furnace your boiler your Kiln Even turn a turbine in place of where You normally burn fossil fuels so with This one system the Dual Hive can turn That intermittent zero carbon power into Industrial reliable heat when I say Industrial heat I mean 1800 Celsius Really hot hot enough to do any job we Need and just as good as hydrogen but Three times or more cost effective so Still affordable and most importantly we Can retrofit existing systems we plug Into your furnace your boiler and so you Don't have to radically redesign what You're doing to decarbonize what you're Doing And the Dual Hive is unmatched in what It can do because of a new patented Technology that we've been working on And that is the building block of Industrial decarbonization the Electrically conductive fire brick or E-brick if you like With semiconductor doping we've taken Ordinary fire bricks that can withstand Flame temperatures we made them into Electrically conductive heating Materials this means we can go hotter And last longer than any electric

Heating material on the market today and It means we can build with this building Block to massive scales you see on the Screen here the green are the conductive Bricks we stack them up we can build Systems that hold lots of heat for Industry and it operates as three things A giant electric heater a giant thermal Store to hold it for later and a giant Heat exchanger we Flow gas straight Through and make hot gas which is what The world runs on So this invention was roughly 10 years In the making mostly during my time at MIT he gets to be very cheery here doing Some lab work I had humble beginnings uh In the wetchem lab But ultimately I got To meet my co-founder Dr Joey cable out Of UC Berkeley who can't be here today Because he's expecting his first child Soon Um but we got to work at building out ETS and working with mature materials From real fire brick companies and so We'll go live now to the lab go to demo At our lab at Medford Massachusetts and We can showcase our progress so when we Started we started with industrially Mature powders but then we moved to Larger systems with full Aggregates full Brick pressing capabilities and then Ultimately we scaled up a thousand X in The last year or so to half a ton of Bricks that are made of our conductive

Material Our test rigs at the lab here are to Test materials properties but also to do Active electric heating tests like this One shown here where we prove that our Bricks can deliver the intensities the Temperatures and the wattages that our Industrial customers need to run their Processes This past summer we commissioned our Pilot scale facility Where we are stacking up full-size Bricks and we are electrically heating Them to 1700 Celsius and we are Operating in the conditions that Industry will see in the Dual Hive Thermal battery as we provide the heat They normally get from fossil fuels all Right thanks guys we'll go back to Presentation So and there's a shot of it here I think Maybe the camera froze but this is what Our demo looks like an elevator size box Where we stack the bricks up we will be Scaling that up to massive sizes Shipping container sizes first but Ultimately to these tall towers where we Can deliver hundreds of megawatts of Heat to the biggest industrial customers And that is what they need if we know we Can get there due to familiar industrial Experiences already So the first product though is about Five megawatts in and out we can put out

Up to 1800 Celsius and anywhere in Between constant heat constant flow to Your industrial process and that does The job of a lot of customers today As far as where it can deploy we can Beat natural gas today in huge parts of The country where you see this purple Plume that's formed in the last five Years that is renewable energy driving The price of electricity negative I told You it was cheap but it's actually when You can grab it when it's in Surplus we Can beat natural gas for example in the Midwest We have roughly a five-year payback Where we can decarbonize eighty percent Of your energy and save you money in the Process even in areas where we have Regulated utilities where there's less Incentives you could still pay back with The jewel Hive compared to your next Best option say electric boilers people Want to decarbonize they want the Cheapest way to get a three year payback Compared to those and we've had Customers all across these different Areas and across every industrial sector Next slide yes Um where we're working them through our Funnel uh where they are working towards Letters of intent and ultimately binding Contracts where we build our first System next year we're going to have These on customer sites the year after

That as we trigger these contracts That's in the steel the cement the glass The adhesives Industries food and Beverage so a huge swath of folks and They are also helping us apply to some Really great government grants as well So we plan to deploy aggressively two Gigawatts and 500 million dollars a year Revenue by 2030. And the ultimate goal is industry Electrified by 2045 a dual live at every Furnace boiler in Kiln roughly a three Trillion dollar market we're looking for Industrial Partners to help us along the Way and of course we'd love you to join Our team which is always growing so Please help us solve the toughest Problems in the hottest space thanks a Lot Thank you We didn't get to your question Matthew So let's start with you Um so we are you're when you're thinking Of deploying these um who is your first Most juicy uh wonderful lovely customer Who do we want to who do you want to get To first so that you can then prove out Your your Roi to the rest of the rest of The world sure so we have a bunch across Different sectors one of the best ones So far has been customers usually big Multinationals uh especially chemicals For example that have mandates that are Willing to you know they need to get

There and they have relatively simple Things to hook up into regulatory Mandates uh yeah like for example in Europe uh and they're but they have International units and so for example We've spoken to several of them who just Say we need the cheapest way to do this And for example they're in one of those Regular regulated environments where the Price you can't just grab the wholesale Negative stuff you need to play by the Rules of the utility even there though We are the cheapest option for them and They're easy to plug into they need About 900 Celsius uh which is very Comfortable for us and there's a bunch Of those like that that are popping up How do you compare to propane like on a Per cost basis oh much better than Propane okay uh but admittedly what it Really comes down to is electricity Price so though the bricks the Box Itself is very cheap it adds very little To the cost of energy uh the main driver Is can you get the cheap electricity and As a storage asset right we can soak up The cheap stuff and give it to you 24 7. That's what allows us to compete but Propane is much easier to beat the Natural Gas You had Dana leaning in the whole time She's excited I I I mean I am curious Because I think You talk about it being

Retrofit and and sort of being at price Is it truly a price parody with with Existing Solutions it absolutely can be and it Again really depends on where your Electricity prices are so there are Certain areas it's not going to be at Parity but there's you know that huge Area of the map that we showed uh you Know Texas the Midwest uh where there's Lots of wind energy uh Wisconsin Iowa And you have you know you have drywall Plants adhesives plants you have ethanol Plants that for them and for a growing Amount of of as that spreads out and it Does is we deployment Renewables it's Hitting cost parity absolutely because When I when I think about sort of how a Business like yours or you know anything That's sort of looking at at Sustainable Alternatives you really do Need to be able to be a parody sort of Everywhere because I mean I think the Regulatory Um enforcement is important but I mean commercial Enterprises are going To adopt if it works for their business Models I mean people need the best price They do need the best price on energy And so Um so it's really interesting but you're Saying you're you are dependent upon the Price of electricity wherever you're Operating that's right the amazing news

Is that solar and wind have come down Yeah like extraordinarily right it's a Remarkable thing that's happened it Makes this possible where now folks can Look at this and say I want that and do You I mean do you distribute like are There traditional Distributors that you Already work with or are you selling Directly to these multinationals or What's the sure so first off on our on Our system side the bricks themselves we Contract out so we've made a recipe that Any brick manufacturer can make it's Working very closely with manufacturers To scale this up rapidly uh you know the Rest of the system is kind of an Integration process you know metal walls Or factory lined walls as well and Piping and so you can you can work with A contractor kind of to kind of deploy The Box by the specs that we give so you Know uh big project developers can do The job and we're talking with several Of them okay We're sending Charles uh I just had a Couple of questions one so the standard Of the material is just standard Production fire bricks that you're Storing the electricity in is that right That's right mine is the secret sauce we Have that makes them electrically Conductive okay it's a combination of Those in regular bricks Um and it seems like a lot of times with

Energy and with heat you lose a lot in The transfer so it sounds like the plan Is to basically build hives if I Understand it that are co-located with The plants or the furnaces is that right That's right we will co-locate them you Don't want to try and pipe really high Temperature heat you know many miles say So the electricity comes in and we store It there and deliver it you know just Through a pipe nearby And the bricks themselves aren't Portable or they are portable and They're electrified or no the idea is Once they're there they're there we're Not going to drive hot bricks around the Country Um and I was going to ask just about Your your go to market in terms of what Size you're hoping to build from for Your first sort of flight of customers Absolutely so that first unit the Shipping container size system is a few Megawatts and that was based on customer Feedback of what could do some of their You know easier jobs there's a whole Range of things but so five megawatts You know one or two of those boxes could Run boilers drying processes you know at These sites we mentioned earlier Um and basically we're building the First one under our control next year It's a sales tool folks can come kick The tires we negotiate a test case that

Says what flow rates and temperatures do You want we'll prove that on our first Box and if it does what you need you buy One so 2025 on customer sites with those First shipping container size boxes Charles I said two questions Um can you talk about this are there any Safety issues related with the Technology relative to the status quo And then is the customer expected to Operate the the jewel Hive or is that The service you provide I'm trying to Make sure I understand the deployment Model sure so business model wise we Look at direct sale they operate Maintenance contract or heat as a Service where we operate Um and depending on what kind we've Heard from multiple customers of Different types it's kind of two Archetypes there as far as safety goes Uh I would definitely say it compared to Other storage Technologies this is much Safer in general the thing about the Bricks is they are very very hot in an Insulated box And that's it there's nothing Technically reacting it's not like a Battery where it felt something short Circuits it explodes the energy is Already there as high temperature heat It's not any different than any other Industrial furnace so the customers that Need the high heat they're used to

Working with high heat systems and so It's not so different from you know Things they already have on site and so They're prepared to handle it in most Cases thank you Mark I have a quick Question about the technology is that is This something you guys license from MIT Is this completely new or are there you Know similar bricks you know people that May have used different you know uh Materials to do the same similar thing Yeah so I've been working at this for Almost 10 years now since 2014 at MIT so I'm the inventor along with my advisor Dr Charles forsberg MIT technically has The patent we have the commercialization Exclusive yes okay Okay well that's all that matters yeah Go last question to my moon yeah I think You mentioned a five-year payback could You just so double click into that and What that uh how that compares to the Status quo sure so I mean the the status Quo in that case the business is usually Compared to was you know so let's say You're an ethanol plant in the Midwest And you're burning a lot of natural gas To make your ethanol which is an Unfortunate part of ethanol production Uh you put our box on site there's an Upfront capex to that but we grab that Cheap electricity when it's at a Favorable price and we sized accordingly Right you know to have enough storage uh

And basically over the course of the First five years we had you know we were Basically delivering cheaper energy than What they were used to burning on their Status quoi natural gas and so on the Fifth year with the Box paid for itself It'll keep running for another 15 years After that and keep paying back now Obviously electricity rates change over Time as well but that was kind of taking A stagnant point and saying you know What are this repeats so can I get one More quick one yeah sorry um so but but You do have to have the Dual Hive on Site and and do they typically do these Customers typically have something like That on site today nothing I like that On site today today they just have a Natural real estate that they need for That they will need real estate that's Right okay so some folks have tons Others it'll be tougher to fit but That's it's a good point it's good as in The midwest that's right All right thank you so much give a round Of applause