With lithium battery storage too weak for many industries, companies are desperately looking elsewhere for energy storage. Molten-salt batteries offer high energy and power density, and can work for long periods. Now, Denmark’s Hyme Energy — which has raised $26 million to date — has signed a deal which 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. The Arla Foods Group is a Danish-Swedish multinational co-operative, and the fifth biggest dairy company in the world.
The Brightfolk investor (Heartland / Anders Holch Povlsen) led the first round fund-raise of €10.4 million into Hyme, which now plans to raise a €20-30 million Series A. It’s also raised €8.4M in convertible notes. Together with grants, it’s now raised €25 million ($26 million) in total.
According to PitchBook, thermal battery startups like Hyme raised over $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, chemicals, and metals production. Hyme and Arla will also jointly seek EU funding for the project.
The proposed system will have a capacity of 200 MWh, converting electricity from renewable sources into heat, stored in molten salt tanks above 500°C. That will completely replace fossil fuels in Arla’s milk powder production, creating a 100% reduction in CO2 emissions.
Cofounder and CEO Emil Løvschall-Jensen — who first worked at CERN — told TechCrunch Hyme’s solutions were ideally suited to Arla’s processes due to the need for steam.
“There’s a lot of emerging technologies in this space. One is the molten salts, and the other is the solid storage medium, like graphite, ceramics etc. The main differences are when it comes to the long duration discharges of steam,” he said.
Hyme focuses entirely on industry segments where there’s a large demand for steam, but also a demand for continuous steam in the 200 to 500 degrees space, he added.
The question is, given Europe is in a power and energy crisis, how fast can these technologies scale across the continent to meet industrial demand? Løvschall-Jensen thinks it’s possible.
“There’s no limitation to the storage medium that is produced… so that can be scaled at any pace. We take a strategy where we look to not be a manufacturer of the components, but instead working with blue chip suppliers and EPC partners to ensure that we can scale fast enough.”
And is venture capital in Europe investing enough in this space?: “Yes and no,” he said. “It is a lot easier to raise money for software. Some recognize that they need to catch the technologies earlier to be the right growth partner later on. We’re seeing hints of it.”
In a statement, David Boulanger, Executive Vice President, Supply Chain at Arla said: “The technology proposed by Hyme Energy is a real breakthrough.”
Competitors to Hyme include Electrified Thermal Solutions, which imbues the humble brick with 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 around 2,400°C (4,350°F). The blocks are charged by molten tin, which is heated using electricity from solar panels or wind turbines.
And MGA Thermal wants to help utility companies transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources with shoebox-sized thermal energy storage blocks.
