Posted on 14 Oct 2026
Thermal energy storage can play an important role in steel production, replacing the use of gas, and providing process heat on demand, a German study says.
The waste heat lost through flaring alone is worth around €13 million/year ($14.5m) at an average European steel plant. Almost every other key step in steel production also loses energy as waste heat that could be recovered with storage technology available today. These are the findings of a study by Saarland-based thermal storage manufacturer Kraftblock, compiled with support from the German Energy Agency.
The study examines eight processes, from sinter cooling, flare gases and electric arc furnace off-gases to coke dry quenching, with regard to waste heat recovery and the use of thermal storage. In electric arc furnaces, preheating scrap with waste heat can cut electricity demand by up to 20%, Kallanish hears from Kraftblock.
The findings come at a time of mounting cost pressure on the gas market. With the Strait of Hormuz blockaded, the European benchmark price stands at around €84/megawatt hour, its highest level since December 2022. At the same time, EU gas storage facilities are only around 70% full ahead of winter, according to Gas Infrastructure Europe.
A reference project with Tata Steel in Jamshedpur, India, shows that the technology pays off at industrial scale. Two storage units with a capacity of 10 megawatt hours each capture waste heat from sinter cooling at up to 600 °C. This saves the equivalent of 120 gigawatt hours of gas and 22,000 tonnes/y of CO2, Kraftblock says.
“The results of our study show that the European steel industry, too, can recover large amounts of unused energy today with existing technologies,” says Martin Schichtel, founder and ceo of Kraftblock.
The company is currently building what it says is one of the world’s largest commercial high-temperature storage systems to replace natural gas with electricity at a PepsiCo plant in the Netherlands.
Kraftblock’s system can store and manage heat at temperatures of up to 1,300 °C, generated from renewable energy or industrial waste heat. This makes it ideally suited for use in industries such as steel, mining and chemicals, it claims.
Source:Kallanish
