MIT Creates Bricks That Conduct Electricity and Store Heat — Technology Promises to Revolutionize Furnaces, Power Plants, and Heavy Industry

Written by Valdemar Medeiros

Published on 26/07/2025 at 13:14

Updated on 26/07/2025 at 13:15

Foto: MIT cria tijolos que conduzem eletricidade e armazenam calor — tecnologia promete revolucionar fornos, usinas e a indústria pesada

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Created at MIT, E-bricks Conduct Electricity, Store Heat of Up to 1,800 °C, and Promise to Replace Fossil Fuels, Revolutionizing Furnaces, Power Plants, and Heavy Industry.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is once again at the center of a technological revolution that could transform entire industries. The startup Electrified Thermal Solutions, born within MIT, has developed refractory bricks that not only conduct electricity but also store heat at temperatures of up to 1,800 °C. Named E-bricks, these bricks are the foundation of a system called Joule Hive™ Thermal Battery (JHTB), a thermal battery capable of generating, storing, and releasing extreme heat, promising to change the way sectors like cement, steel, mining, and food operate.

This innovation goes beyond an academic advance: it is a concrete step toward decarbonizing heavy industry, responsible for more than 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions. With E-bricks, factories will be able to replace fossil fuels with renewable electricity, creating a realistic path to drastically reduce pollution in processes that have historically relied on coal, gas, and oil.

MIT Innovation Brick: How the Technology That Conducts Electricity and Stores Heat Works

The concept behind E-bricks is simple yet powerful. The bricks are made with special refractory materials, capable of withstanding extremely high temperatures. When connected to a renewable electricity source, they heat up quickly and store heat on a large scale. This heat can then be released on demand to power furnaces, plants, and industrial systems.

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E-bricks and the Strategic Partnership with HWI for Large-Scale Production

To take the technology from the lab to the industry, Electrified Thermal Solutions has made an agreement with HarbisonWalker International (HWI), a company of the Calderys group and one of the largest suppliers of refractory materials in the U.S.

This partnership is crucial because it ensures the large-scale production of E-bricks using existing supply chains.

MIT creates bricks that conduct electricity and store heat — technology promises to revolutionize furnaces, power plants, and heavy industry — (Image: Electrified Thermal Solutions E-bricks)

According to HWI, the electric bricks maintain the durability required by customers who work with extreme temperatures, while also providing the advantage of generating heat using renewable electricity.

Calderys, the parent company of HWI, is already planning to expand production globally, signaling that industrial demand for this type of solution is rapidly growing.

Electric Bricks: Benefits and Potential for Industrial Transformation

E-bricks offer a range of advantages that explain why they are attracting the attention of industrial giants:

Withstand extreme temperatures of up to 1,800 °C, suitable for sectors like cement and steel.
Replace fossil fuels, using renewable electric energy as a heat source.
Reduce greenhouse gas emissions, helping companies meet sustainability goals.
Can be produced on a large scale, leveraging existing manufacturing and supply chains.

According to Daniel Stack, CEO and co-founder of Electrified Thermal Solutions, the goal has always been to create a scalable product: “To make a significant impact on a global scale, we needed a solution that could be produced quickly. Our partnership with HWI transforms what could be a bottleneck into a powerful scale advantage.”

Conductive Bricks: What This Means for the Clean Industrial Revolution

The ability to store heat efficiently using electricity opens a range of opportunities for the so-called Green Industry 4.0.

Today, many sectors face challenges in eliminating fossil fuels because they require continuous and intense heat to operate. Steel, for example, requires extremely high temperatures for melting. Cement, another polluting sector, relies on kilns that operate 24 hours a day.

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E-bricks can solve this impasse by allowing companies to use solar and wind energy — sources that vary throughout the day — to heat the bricks, which then release heat steadily. This creates a link between intermittent renewable energy and constant industrial processes, something that has always been a challenge for decarbonization.

Industries That Can Benefit from E-bricks

Cement: responsible for about 7% of global CO₂ emissions, could use the bricks to eliminate coal usage.
Steelmaking: replacing coke and natural gas with electric heat would reduce emissions without compromising production.
Mining and metals: smelting and refining processes would become cleaner.
Food and beverages: ovens and pasteurization systems could operate more sustainably.

A Step Toward a Future of Cleaner Furnaces and Power Plants

The potential impact of the technology is enormous. Instead of reinventing all infrastructure, E-bricks can be integrated into existing furnaces, power plants, and systems, accelerating adoption without requiring drastic changes to the global industrial landscape.

More than an MIT innovation, electric bricks represent a pragmatic concept: transforming simple components, like bricks, into key pieces for the global energy transition.

E-bricks demonstrate that not every technological revolution comes in the form of chips or artificial intelligence. Sometimes, what changes the world is a brick — as long as it stores heat, conducts electricity, and replaces fossil fuels on an industrial scale.

With the partnership between Electrified Thermal Solutions and HWI, this innovation is ready to leave MIT’s laboratories and heat furnaces around the world, ushering in a new era for the clean and sustainable heavy industry.

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MIT Creates Bricks That Conduct Electricity and Store Heat — Technology Promises to Revolutionize Furnaces, Power Plants, and Heavy Industry

Created at MIT, E-bricks Conduct Electricity, Store Heat of Up to 1,800 °C, and Promise to Replace Fossil Fuels, Revolutionizing Furnaces, Power Plants, and Heavy Industry.

MIT Innovation Brick: How the Technology That Conducts Electricity and Stores Heat Works

E-bricks and the Strategic Partnership with HWI for Large-Scale Production

Electric Bricks: Benefits and Potential for Industrial Transformation

Conductive Bricks: What This Means for the Clean Industrial Revolution

Industries That Can Benefit from E-bricks

A Step Toward a Future of Cleaner Furnaces and Power Plants

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MIT Creates Bricks That Conduct Electricity and Store Heat — Technology Promises to Revolutionize Furnaces, Power Plants, and Heavy Industry

Created at MIT, E-bricks Conduct Electricity, Store Heat of Up to 1,800 °C, and Promise to Replace Fossil Fuels, Revolutionizing Furnaces, Power Plants, and Heavy Industry.

MIT Innovation Brick: How the Technology That Conducts Electricity and Stores Heat Works

E-bricks and the Strategic Partnership with HWI for Large-Scale Production

Electric Bricks: Benefits and Potential for Industrial Transformation

Conductive Bricks: What This Means for the Clean Industrial Revolution

Industries That Can Benefit from E-bricks

A Step Toward a Future of Cleaner Furnaces and Power Plants

Mother and daughter build a 70 m² house with more than 8,000 discarded glass bottles and impress with their creativity; known as the Casa de Sal, the property is located on Itamaracá Island, in Pernambuco.

Workers were opening a new road connection near the Marginal Tietê when they found, in the underground of the construction site, remnants of locomotives, wagons, and boilers from the 19th century linked to the forgotten history of Lapa.

Instead of burning or burying old tires, an American city is transforming about 2,000 of them into the street itself, paving its first sections with a quieter and more durable rubber asphalt.

China transforms desert-devastated area into the world’s largest artificial forest, planting trees for 60 years, blocking sand that reached Beijing, and creating a “green lung” of 92,000 hectares in a region once considered lost.

Greek island offers free housing for volunteers, but there’s a condition: you need to take care of rescued cats.

He transformed an abandoned plastic water tank into an underground house in the “hobbit hole” style, using only repurposed pallet wood, without heavy machinery or expensive labor.

China has deployed snake-shaped robots to slide along power lines, where they have already inspected over 130 kilometers of cables using cameras and sensors to detect damaged wires, worn-out parts, and overheating.

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Created at MIT, E-bricks Conduct Electricity, Store Heat of Up to 1,800 °C, and Promise to Replace Fossil Fuels, Revolutionizing Furnaces, Power Plants, and Heavy Industry.