Swedish Stirling says it has entered a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Samancor Chrome that could see up to 135 PWR BLOKs installed at Samancor Chrome’s TC Smelter, Ferrometals and Tubatse Alloys smelters, in South Africa.

On December 13, 2019, Swedish Stirling and Samancor entered into an “energy conversion service agreement” for the installation of a pilot facility with one PWR BLOK unit at Samancor Chrome’s TC Smelter facility.

Today’s MoU is related to discussions on a potential installation of PWR BLOKs at the three operations in Mooinooi, Emalahleni and Burgersfort, respectively.

The agreement comprises a possible installation of up to 45 PWR BLOKs corresponding to 18 MW of power at each smelter, ie in total, up to 135 PWR BLOKs corresponding to 54 MW.

“Details regarding an installation will be communicated when the parties have entered into final binding agreements,” Swedish Stirling said.

The PWR BLOK is a unique proprietary solution that uses Swedish Stirling’s Stirling engines for recovering energy from industrial residual and flare gases and converting them to 100% carbon-neutral electricity at a high rate of efficiency, according to the company.

Samancor is not the only South Africa-based ferroalloy producer Swedish Stirling has signed up to use its PWR BLOK technology. Earlier this year, the company signed a pact with Glencore that will see it install and deliver up to 25 PWR BLOKs, generating 9.9 MW, to the Lydenburg smelter.