SaltX Technology is an innovative Greentech company that strives to develop energy storage and electrification technology that significantly contributes to reduced carbon dioxide emissions from the energy and industrial sector. This means that we constantly need to break new ground with innovation and curiosity leading us to newdiscoveries and advances. To succeed, innovative people with an untiring desire to resolve both big andsmall challenges are needed. Lars Croon and Corey Blackman are such people.
Lars Croon is a heat and energy pioneer who has worked consistently to get things working. He started his career in a heating and plumbing company in his native town of Örnsköldsvik, which led Lars further into the field of thermal energy and associated system solutions.
In his many years as a contractor, Lars has imported vacuum solar collectors, optimised combustion processes for heating plants, been responsible for biofuel conversion of coal-fired boilers in England, commissioned and optimized around ten CHP plants, established over thirty biofuel plants and been responsible for an experimental group for combustion trials in fluid beds. It is no exaggeration to claim that Lars is one of Sweden’s sharpest and most experienced “energy craftsmen”.
” I’M DEFINITELY NOT A DESK ENGINEER.”
What characterizes Lars’ professional achievements is making technology work in practice. He has always worked diligently in his professional roles, where he literally built, tested and optimized various types of plants. As he puts it, he is not a “desk engineer” with the computer as his main tool, quite the opposite. A practical problem solver who refuses to give up before finding solutions to the problems he is facing. This was also the reason why Lars chose to take up employment at SaltX in 2017. Here he saw the opportunity to take on the biggest and by far the most important challenge – the energy industry’s negative climate impact.
In his new role as project manager for the EnerStore energy storage solution, he and SaltX CTO, Corey Blackman, became a dynamic duo. Lars’ practical experience and Corey’s background in research and technology development were the perfect mix of skills.
Without these two, and the talented team they put together, the world’s first pilot plant for energy storage in nano-coated salt would never have seen the light of day.
INNOVATION – ELECTRIC ARC CALCINER (EAC)
When Lars took on the challenge of finding a new and more efficient charging reactor for SaltX’s energy storage facility, Lars, Corey and the team discovered that the technology is also ideal for electrifying the indus- trial process of calcination. The term calcination means that materials are heated to high temperatures to change their properties.
There is great potential here to create a solution that can significantly reduce carbon dioxide emissions from the lime and cement industry, and as Corey sees it, “as an innovation-driven company, it is our duty to explore the opportunities that technology offers us”.
Earlier in his career, Lars was faced with the challenge of creating a new solution for combustion of biofuel. Once again, this time as a SaltX employee, he faced the challenge of finding an innovative heating technology and saw the potential of doing so using electric plasma technology. It is the result of this work that we are now seeing in the Electric Arc Calciner innovation.
The development team at SaltX succeeded in creating an electrically driven industrial calcination process that makes the production of lime and cement free of carbon dioxide emissions.
”…PRODUCTION OF LIME AND
CEMENT: FREE FROM CARBON DIOXIDE EMISSIONS.
This is done in two ways, by replacing fossil heating with renewable electricity and by isolating and separating the carbon dioxide released by heating in the manufacturing process. This is a unique, unrivaled technology and a breakthrough in producing climate-neutral lime and cement.
The results have been verified by external experts and have resulted in SMA Mineral AB, one of the Nordic region’s. leading lime manufacturers, entering into a partnership with and investing in SaltX. This is proof of the quality and potential of the innovation.
ONE INNOVATION – MULTIPLE APPLICATIONS
The Electric Arc Calciner innovation and partner- ship with SMA Minerals is a milestone for SaltX’s opportunities to contribute to a renewable electrified industry. It also strengthens our oppor- tunities to build efficient and scalable energy storage solutions, which continues to be a major and important part of the company’s operations.
The fact that the lime and cement industry is a very homogeneous market with constant demand means that there is great potential for SaltX to reach a commercial phase in a relatively short time.
The market for energy storage continues to develop in a positive direction, but the market is not yet fully balanced, which makes the current broadening of SaltX’s operations even more relevant and exciting.