Invention of a new type of brick that can store heat

The MGA brick is made from aluminum and graphite, has an estimated life of 30 years and holds about 1 kWh of heat energy each.

A team of engineers at the University of Newcastle, Australia, has been granted a patent for a new material used to make bricks and store heat , Reuters reported on October 27. They hope this product will help transform the operation of coal-fired power plants.

Erich Kisi inspects thermal bricks in Newcastle, Australia, October 2021. (Photo: Reuters/Stefica Nicol Bikes)

The new brick, called Miscibility Gaps Alloy (MGA) , is made from aluminum and graphite and can store energy produced from renewable sources. Their estimated lifespan is 30 years. Each brick weighs about 6kg and contains about 1 kWh of heat energy. Kisi declined to give a predicted price per tablet.

According to Erich Kisi, co-inventor of thermoelectric bricks, the team came up with the idea for energy storage while working on heat-emission converters - devices that generate electricity from heat.

"The most important brick material are aluminum particles that help provide latent heat (heat absorbed or released by a substance when it changes state, for example from liquid to gas, while the temperature of that substance They will melt and harden thousands of times over the lifetime of the brick but stay in place They stay in place thanks to graphite We have other mechanisms but graphite is the ingredient. main," Kisi said.

Kisi is the CEO of MGA Thermal, the company that makes MGA tiles. MGA Thermal is working with Swiss company E2S Power AG to use the new brick in the improvement and repurposing of coal-fired power plants in Europe. MGA can get energy from renewable sources (such as wind and solar power), store it as thermal energy cheaply and safely, and then use this energy to run steam turbines in power plants instead of burning coal.