Coolbrook announced that it has been awarded research and development funding from Business Finland to advance the decarbonization of steel production. The grant supports Coolbrook’s participation in the FutSteel project, which is a core part of the Sustainable World through Steels ecosystem led by SSAB.
Coolbrook’s project scope within FutSteel amounts to €5 million, with €2.5 million covered by grant funding awarded to the company.
The funding will support further development of Coolbrook’s next-generation RotoDynamic Heater (RDH) technology for high-temperature steel industry applications. The project will focus on integrating RDH technology across key stages of the steel production chain, including blast furnace processes, electrified reheating, hot-stove air preheating, hybrid heating concepts, decarbonized Direct Reduced Iron production, and hydrogen-based steel production.
Coolbrook’s RDH technology uses renewable electricity to reach temperatures of up to 1700°C with zero operational CO2 emissions. The company said this approach can replace fossil fuel combustion in industrial heating processes, helping address one of the most difficult sources of emissions in steelmaking.
The award follows Coolbrook’s commercial-scale RDH deployment in the cement industry with Ambuja Cement, part of the Adani Group. Coolbrook is now applying the same engineering approach to steel manufacturing, where extreme heat requirements have traditionally depended on fossil fuels.
The funding will also support advanced process modeling, equipment development, and intellectual property activities tied to the accelerated development of RDH technology. And the initiative aligns with Business Finland’s goal of strengthening Finland’s industrial competitiveness by supporting ecosystems capable of exporting green technologies globally.
Coolbrook is focused on decarbonizing major industrial sectors such as petrochemicals, chemicals, iron and steel, and cement. Its rotating technology combines space science, turbomachinery, and chemical engineering to replace fossil-fuel burning in major industrial processes. The company’s core technologies include the RotoDynamic Reactor for CO2-free olefin production and the RotoDynamic Heater for carbon-free process heating in iron and steel, cement, and chemical production.
Once implemented at scale, Coolbrook said its RotoDynamic Technology has the potential to cut 2.4 billion tons of annual CO2 emissions in heavy industry, or about 30%.
KEY QUOTES:
“This funding from Business Finland is a significant endorsement of our RotoDynamic technology and its role in clean energy transition. Having already demonstrated the commercial viability of our electrification technology in the cement sector, we are now focused on delivering the same transformative impact for steel. Collaborating with SSAB and the wider FutSteel ecosystem allows us to fast-track the deployment of our technology in one of the world’s most carbon intensive industries.”
Joonas Rauramo, CEO of Coolbrook
“We see great potential in Coolbrook’s RotoDynamic Heater technology to support the electrification of high-temperature steelmaking processes. Advancing innovative solutions like RDH is essential to accelerating the steel industry’s transition toward lower-emission production, and our collaborations within the FutSteel ecosystem help bring promising technologies closer to industrial deployment.”
Jarmo Lilja, Process Development Manager at SSAB
