Vale Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of Brazilian mining company Vale, announced on Thursday its investment in a Boston-based startup dedicated to creating solutions for decarbonizing heat generation, reported Reuters.
The firm, Electrified Thermal Solutions, owns technology for heating industrial furnaces through electricity, without the use of fossil fuels, the mining giant said.
According to the mining firm, the technology has strong potential for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in industrial processes in hard-to-abate sectors, such as the mining and steel industries.
“Investing in start-ups with solutions that promote the decarbonization of the mining value chain is one of our key missions. ETS’s solution has the potential, in the future, to contribute to the decarbonization of our direct scope 1 emissions, as well as scope 3 emissions, relating to our value chain by generating high temperature heat for industrial processes through electricity instead of fossil fuels.” explains Bruno Arcadier, head of Vale Ventures in an official statement.
“What this startup managed to develop was a technology that uses electricity generated with renewable energy, clean energy, to create heat of up to 1,800 degrees Celsius (3,272 degrees Fahrenheit), Bruno Arcadier told Reuters.
The Brazilian mining giant Vale has acquired a minority stake in a Boston-based technology startup as part of a $19 million funding round, for the tech firm.