Heat-storing firebricks could save money and the environment

Researchers from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford University have looked back to the past for inspiration in potentially offering a life-saving solution we'll need in the not-too-distant future. That's the use of firebricks, a technology humanity has used since the Bronze Age, to store heat from renewable sources and then release that heat in industrial settings where certain manufacturing processes require high temperatures.

Stanford scientists penned a...