The Magaldi Group has branched out into many diversified industrial sectors. Can you tell us something about the history of the Group?

The Group has a history of over 90 years and is still owned by the founder's family.
In 1901, Emilio Magaldi patented a buffalo hide transmission belt that, unlike traditional belts, was virtually indestructible. In 1929, production began on an industrial scale in Buccino (Salerno) and the first orders came from the major Italian companies of the time, such as Ansaldo and Breda.
In the 1960s, with the decline of power transmission belts, Magaldi switched to the production of innovative conveyor belts made of wire mesh with bolted steel plates, for industrial processes requiring the handling of materials under severe processing conditions. In 1985, Magaldi patented a system for the dry extraction of bottom ash, first installed at Enel's Pietrafitta power plant and now present in hundreds of power plants throughout the world. In the 1990s, the Group branched out into new industrial sectors and the global markets.

In which sectors do you operate today? What is Magaldi's share of the global markets and of exports?

Today, we are a world leader in the design and manufacture of heavy-duty materials handling systems adopted in a wide range of industries: from metal-working to steelmaking, from aluminium recycling to cement, from waste-to-energy and biomass plants. The Group provides solutions to reduce the environmental impact of production processes, for example by reducing water consumption or recovering thermal energy from upstream processes, and to implement circular economy models, for example by recovering metals from waste-to-energy slag. We are present in more than 50 countries, with operations in the United States, Mexico, the United Arab Emirates, India, Australia and Germany. Turnover in 2023 will be in the region of 45 million euros and exports account for more than 90% of our turnover.

Every company calls itself “innovative” but in your case the focus on developing new technological solutions seems to be embedded in the group's DNA. How is the Magaldi Group's R&D department structured? What results have you achieved?

Our focus on innovation and ability to develop reliable cutting-edge technologies have been key to Magaldi for two reasons, on the one hand, they have enabled us to remain competitive in ever-changing markets and, on the other, they have encouraged the Group to tackle and win the challenges on global markets. Today, the Magaldi Group has over 200 employees, more than 50% of whom are engineers, and investments in R&D exceed 3% of our annual turnover. We collaborate with top universities and research facilities in Italy and abroad, such as the University of Naples, the University of Adelaide in Australia and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States, leading to our registration of no less than 55 international patents.

As a group operating in a highly polluting sector you are subject to the changes required by the ecological transition and the objectives of the European Green Deal. What is the group doing to address decarbonisation?

The Group's interest in environmental issues began long before decarbonisation became a hot topic. The dry bottom ash extraction system I mentioned earlier, called MAC® (Magaldi Ash Cooler), was developed by us in the 1980s as an alternative to the traditional wet systems, which are highly polluting and consume large amounts of water. Its operational advantages and undoubted environmental benefits helped us earn the recognition, by the European Union, of Best Available Technology (BAT). Since 1985, the MAC® system has been installed in hundreds of power stations around the world. But we know this is not enough, so, in 2011, we created Magaldi Green Energy, committed to researching, developing and rolling out innovative technologies in the field of clean energy production and storage. Of the 55 patents I mentioned earlier, 10 are related to the renewable energy sector. We started out by concentrating solar power and in the last 10 years we’ve focused on thermal energy storage. Most recently, we patented MGTES, a revolutionary storage system that can finally bring green energy to industrial processes.

What is MGTES exactly and how does it work?

Eliminating the use of fossil fuels to produce heat energy for industry has represented a problem since the steam engine and the Industrial Revolution. Now, 250 years later, we can use electricity to generate steam directly. Renewable sources have the problem of intermittency, so we need thermal energy storage to release the energy. In this case, traditional batteries don’t work. The simplest form of thermal energy storage is water, but this can only reach temperatures of 70 or 80 degrees, whereas MGTES, which uses sand, can go beyond 600 degrees. MGTES, which stands for Magaldi Green Thermal Energy Storage, is a fluidised bed storage system that uses sand and steel to store renewable energy, both electrical and thermal, in the form of heat. In the case of electrical energy, resistors are immersed in the sand bed, while in the case of thermal energy we use a heat exchanger. The fluidisation of the sand particles significantly increases the heat exchange coefficient. During storage, the insulation of the system drastically limits the loss of heat and therefore energy, making MGTES a more efficient storage system than others currently on the market. Finally, during discharge, the system releases the stored energy in the form of steam.

What are the advantages of the MGTES technology and to which areas can it be applied?

MGTES has many advantages. It is a zero-impact system because it is made from silica sand and steel, both of which are recyclable, it contains no chemicals or rare earths and produces no pollutants. The materials that make up the system are readily available around the world, so there are no problems with restricted or quota supply chains. Another feature is its flexibility, MGTES generates energy that can be supplied to industrial plants, the electricity grid or thermal power stations, decoupling energy production and consumption. As a storage system, MGTES is exceptionally efficient, with losses of less than 2 per cent of the stored energy every 24 hours thanks to the insulation system, while other storage systems lose much more energy. MGTES is also extremely small, with a system capable of storing 60 MW/hour occupying only 200 square metres. It also features no safety hazards because, unlike batteries, there is no risk of fire and it is easy to install and maintain.
All these characteristics make MGTES a revolutionary technology capable of completely replacing fossil fuels in industrial processes requiring heat between 150°C and 400°C, typical of the food and beverage, paper, tobacco, plastics and chemical industries. Other important applications include desalination, particularly in the Middle East, and mining in Australia and South America.

Is MGTES already available? Is the technology already used in industrial plants?

We are almost there. In collaboration with Enel X, Magaldi has built the first plant using MGTES technology to supply thermal energy for industrial processes at the IGI plant, which produces edible fats and oils for the Ferrero Group. The plant, which will be operational in the second half of 2024, will consist, after the validation phase, of a 5 megawatt photovoltaic panel system and a 125-tonne MGTES system, with a storage capacity of up to 13 thermal MWh per day. Once fully operational, it will reduce the energy consumption of IGI by 20 per cent, saving 1,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year. The technology is ready and we are looking for new projects with Enel X. COP 28 put the decarbonisation of industrial processes at the centre of the debate, and to speed up the process we need incentives, for example to convert renewable electricity into thermal energy, with reductions in grid fees, as decided for green hydrogen.

Read in Italian