With lithium battery storage too weak for many industries, companies are desperately looking for energy storage elsewhere. Molten salt batteries offer high energy and power density and can operate for long periods. Now, Denmark Hyme Energy – which has raised $26 million to date – has signed a deal that could see its technology scale to industrial levels.
Arla, one of the world’s leading dairy producers, will partner with Hyme to develop a large-scale industrial thermal storage system globally. Arla Foods Group is a Danish-Swedish multinational cooperative and the fifth largest dairy company in the world.
Brightfolk investor (Heartland / Anders Holch Povlsen) led the first fundraising round of €10.4 million in Hyme, which now plans to raise a Series A of €20-30 million. It also raised €8.4 million in convertible notes. Together with grants, it has now raised €25 million ($26 million) in total.
According Proposal bookThermal battery startups like Hyme raised more than $170 million in venture funding in 2023 and are on track to raise more than double that in 2024.
The project will initially be built for Arla’s milk powder facility in Holstebro, Denmark. Hyme’s technology uses a molten salt system built for energy-intensive industries such as food and beverage, chemical and metal production. Hyme and Arla will also jointly seek EU funding for the project.
The proposed system will have a capacity of 200 MWh and will convert electricity from renewable sources into heat, stored in molten salt tanks at a temperature of more than 500 °C. This will completely replace fossil fuels in Arla’s milk powder production, generating a 100% reduction in CO2 emissions.
Co-founder and CEO Emil Løvschall-Jensen, who first worked at CERN, told britcommerce that Hyme’s solutions were ideally suited to Arla’s processes because of the need for steam.
“There are many emerging technologies in this space. One is molten salts and the other is solid storage medium, such as graphite, ceramics, etc. The main differences are in the long-duration steam discharges,” he said.
Hyme focuses exclusively on industrial segments where there is a high demand for steam, but also a demand for continuous steam in the 200 to 500 degree space, he added.
The question is, given that Europe is in an electricity and energy crisis, how quickly can these technologies scale across the continent to meet industrial demand? Løvschall-Jensen believes it is possible.
“There is no limitation on the storage medium that is produced… so it can be expanded at any pace. “We adopted a strategy where we are looking to not be a component manufacturer, but to work with frontline suppliers and EPC partners to ensure we can scale quickly enough.”
And is venture capital in Europe investing enough in this space?: “Yes and no,” he stated. “It’s much easier to raise money for software. Some recognize that they need to grasp the technologies earlier to be the right growth partner in the future. “We are seeing signs of it.”
In a statement, David Boulanger, executive vice president of supply chain at Arla, said: “The technology proposed by Hyme Energy is a real breakthrough.”
Hyme’s competitors include Electrified Thermal Solutions, which gives the humble brick the ability to transform electricity into heat and store it for hours on end.
Fourth Power’s thermal battery stores energy in the form of graphite blocks kept at about 2,400°C (4,350°F). The blocks are loaded with molten tin, which is heated with electricity from solar panels or wind turbines.
And MGA Thermal wants to help utilities transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources with shoebox-sized thermal energy storage blocks.