It’s no secret that heavy industry has a major heat problem. Traditional manufacturing processes for critical materials—including cement, steel, and various chemicals—require temperatures in the ballpark of 1500°C, which are generated by burning fossil fuels. Accordingly, heavy industry is responsible for 25% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

“There’s no energy transition if we don’t solve the problem of how to produce high-temperature industrial heat without greenhouse-gas emissions,” explains John Restrepo, co-founder and CTO of Greentown member NOC Energy. “That’s the reason we started this company.”

NOC Energy’s technology electrifies the production of high temperatures while staying cost-competitive with fossil fuels and allowing manufacturers to keep their existing infrastructure. Its NOC Cell’s packed-bed heat exchanger delivers hot gas up to 1500°C to power boilers and kilns, taking in just a gas (such as cold ambient air) and electricity (whether from the grid or on-site renewables source). The technology can utilize customers’ waste heat as well.

Critically, the NOC Cell can also store energy in the form of heat, thanks to its core-shell spheres made of high-performance ceramics and phase-change materials. This is important in situations when renewable energy isn’t available around the clock; the cell can draw clean energy when it’s available, then deliver the heat whenever it’s needed.

It’s unique for an electrified process to be capable of delivering such high temperatures, and the NOC Cell also stands out for its high energy density—up to seven times that of its competitors, according to the company—and economic scalability.

When powered with renewable electricity, NOC Energy’s technology produces heat with no carbon emissions. A single NOC Cell can eliminate 4,900 tons of CO₂ per year, the startup says, equivalent to taking 2,500 vehicles off the road.

NOC Energy is focusing first on electrifying steam production and mineral-drying processes. It currently sells and leases its cells, but plans to offer energy-as-a-service in the future. The five-person startup completed an industrial pilot this year and is closing its seed round; it plans to do pre-commercial projects next year and commercial projects in 2026.

NOC Energy joined Greentown Houston this spring, which served as the startup’s entry point into the U.S. market.

“Greentown Labs, for us, is a blessing,” says Carlos Ceballos, NOC Energy’s co-founder and CEO. “We started in Colombia, and it would’ve been hard without Greentown to make the company visible to the type of investors and companies that we can reach through Greentown Labs. It’s really an amazing opportunity for us. Since we arrived, our product is getting more interest, we’re talking with very relevant companies, and they see value in our technology.”

Ceballos and Restrepo are both from Colombia, but met while completing engineering PhDs in the Netherlands about 25 years ago. They went separate ways with their careers, then reconnected by chance in 2023 and discovered they both wanted to start a climatetech company that could have a significant impact.