Cool customers Astatine decarbonising industrial heat emissions

Astatine, the rarest naturally occurring element in Earth’s crust, is used in the treatment of cancer during radiotherapy as it kills cancer cells – a pretty important atom to have around, then. Its namesake, an Irish company that decarbonises industrial heat to combat climate change, plays a role that is arguably as important. With Ireland’s National Energy and Climate Plan 2021-2030 setting a target of a 24 per cent renewable share of heat by 2030 but only 5.2 per cent coming from renewable sources in 2021, it seems clear that the only realistic path to achieving this target is through decarbonising large-scale, industrial, rather than domestic, heat users.

Decarbonising heat emissions

Heat emissions are among the least-discussed areas of decarbonisation and while technologies suitable for decarbonising heat exist, historically they have not been deployed in Ireland. With heat emissions accounting for approximately 65 per cent of the State’s industrial emissions, this is no small problem to tackle – and it is one that Astatine’s co-founders Tom Marren, Paul Dowling and Pat Nolan decided to take on. The three all have backgrounds in the energy efficiency and renewable energy sectors and share a passion for combating climate change. They decided to use their combined experience and skill sets to displace substantial carbon emissions from industrial heat and power using existing technological solutions such as high-temperature industrial heat pumps and solar photovoltaic (PV).

Astatine’s focus on industrial heat decarbonisation and ability to deliver large-scale solutions will have a big impact on combating climate change, says Marren. “Every unit of electricity generated by Astatine’s solar PV solutions directly offsets a unit of electricity from the national electricity grid, which has an embedded carbon footprint. Every unit of heat from a heat pump installed directly offsets units of heat which otherwise come from burning fossil fuels.”

Despite the company’s youth, Astatine has already delivered significant emissions reductions. In addition, it recently secured €25 million in funding from Solas Capital, a specialist investment advisory firm specialising in funding decarbonisation and energy efficiency projects.

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Typical clients include large energy users in the food and drink, dairy processing, distilling, brewing and pharmaceutical sectors. Essentially, it’s any industrial and commercial sites currently using fossil fuels that produce process heat or use significant amounts of electricity.

Heat-seeking technology

Astatine is the only company in Ireland specialising in industrial heat pumps that supply heat at temperatures of above 80 degrees. The maximum temperature available from an industrial heat pump is increasing all the time, which is opening up new opportunities and applications. Astatine has installed the first heat pumps capable of producing temperatures of over 100 degrees with the 120-degree heat pumps it installed in the Ahascragh distillery in Co Galway.

And that’s not the only first the company can claim; it also delivered the first solar-powered craft brewery in Ireland, Wicklow Wolf, and installed the largest solar facility at any industrial plant in Ireland with Dale Farm’s 5,000 KW installation.

It’s not just Ireland that is experiencing the Astatine effect. In Australia the firm installed a tri-generation system providing power, heating and cooling to a 40,000 sq metre building, which offsets 6,000 tonnes of carbon annually. In Saudi Arabia it provides 100 per cent power to the 650-acre King Abdullah Port.

New ways to heat things up

Green Haas – or heat as a service – is another string to the company’s bow. It is a new way of supplying heat to companies and brings with it up to 90 per cent reduction in carbon and fossil-fuel emissions. The company offers a fully funded option for both heat pump and solar PV solutions and will fully fund the capital cost of the project and deliver it at zero cost to the client. Astatine will then sell the electricity or heat produced to the client as a service, similar to the sale of normal utilities: clients pay a rate to Astatine for the energy they consume, reducing clients’ operational costs – and no doubt encouraging more uptake.