Tata Steel and Kraftblock Advance Successful Thermal Energy Storage Operations at Jamshedpur

Tata Steel, in partnership with Kraftblock GmbH, a German energy transition technology startup, is approaching a year of reliable operations of a thermal energy storage system at Sinter Plant #3 (SP3) at its Jamshedpur Works. The system is designed to recover high‑temperature waste heat from the sintering process that would normally be released into the atmosphere, store it efficiently, and use it to warm process water required in the sintering stage. This simple shift is helping reduce fuel use, improve productivity, and lower carbon emissions by 22000 t-CO2 annually .

The pilot, which began a year ago, is now consistently delivering positive results and has become an important step in Tata Steel’s journey toward cleaner and more efficient steelmaking.

Chaitanya Bhanu, Vice President - Operations, Tata Steel Jamshedpur, said: “At Tata Steel, decarbonising steel production is closely linked to improving how efficiently we use energy across our operations. The Kraftblock thermal energy storage system demonstrates how high-temperature waste heat from an energy-intensive stage of steelmaking can be captured and reused within the process. The system demonstrates a practical and scalable pathway to more energy‑efficient steelmaking." 

Dr. Martin Schichtel, CEO & Co-founder, Kraftblock, said: “The project at Tata Steel shows the great feasibility of heat recovery and storage in the steel industry. There are many use cases in steelmaking, from furnaces to flaring. With our sustainable Thermal Storages, we progress to support the steel industry in their efforts to become more energy- and cost-efficient”.

This pilot forms part of Tata Steel’s broader sustainability and process‑innovation roadmap. With successful implementation at SP3, multiple cross‑deployment opportunities can be unlocked across high‑temperature furnaces and flaring zones.

This collaboration with Kraftblock has been carried out under ‘TomorrowLAB’ - Tata Steel’s flagship startup engagement programme. TomorrowLAB focuses on identifying, piloting, and scaling innovative solutions from the startup ecosystem to address key sustainability, process‑efficiency, and operational challenges across the Company’s value chain.

Sintering is the process of thermal agglomeration of iron ore fines into larger, stronger, rock-like lumps (called "sinter") that are suitable to be fed into a blast furnace to make iron.