A heat pump to decarbonize the planet
The technical solution to make it cheaper
not to pollute.
Low-cost, carbon-free industrial heat
Our first market
More than 20% of worldwide CO2 emissions are caused by burning fossil fuels to supply the heat required by industrial processes.
Vast amounts of heating energy are required across all industrial sectors to melt, dry, sterilize or otherwise process materials and products. However, cost-effective and decarbonized alternative technologies are lacking to reduce the environmental footprint of the industry and hit global climate targets.
Airthium provides solutions for reliable, low-cost, efficient and clean industrial heat supply up to 550°C/1022°F with the help of a first-of-a-kind very high temperature heat pump. Our heat-pump powered boilers and dryers are especially suited to the food, paper, automotive, and mining industries.
What is a heat pump?
Unlike a heat engine, which converts heat into electricity or mechanical motion, a heat pump converts electricity into heating and cooling power. While electrical resistors can also convert electricity into heat with 100% efficiency, heat pumps are more efficient, typically delivering 2 to 5 kWh of heat for 1 kWh of electricity. Heat pumps work by redirecting the flow of thermal energy (”heat”) from cold matter to hot matter, similar to how a fridge works. When a heat pump delivers 3 kWh of heat to the hot side, called the “heat sink”, it typically takes 2 kWh from a cold “heat source” and adds 1 kWh from electrical energy.
Airthium's heat pump
Airthium disrupts the high-temperature heat pump market by the unique features of its product, enabled by a breakthrough in the underlying thermodynamics. The result is a new, highly reliable, robust, efficient and low cost very high-temperature heat pump.
The technology exploits the Ericsson cycle, which differs from the conventional Stirling cycle by the achievement of high temperature, fast, near iso-thermal gas compression. Energy transfers inside Airthium’s system are nearly ideal, with an efficiency reaching up to 86% of the theoretical limit, while current best-in-class technologies achieve only 64%. The innovative design allows very high supply temperatures, prevents costly maintenance efforts, and maximizes the reliability of the product.
Our mission
We build heat engines that allow the industry and the electrical grid to stop polluting at scale in a cost-effective way.
Our engine is built to replace fossil-fired industrial steam boilers and dryers by a low-cost, fully electric alternative, in the form of high temperature heat pumps.
Long-term, we plan to replace gas-fired peaker power plants, which provide backup power when there is no sun or wind, by a hybrid daily and seasonal renewable energy storage system, powered by the same engine as the heat pumps.
Combined, those two market opportunities can prevent one third of worldwide direct CO2 emissions, or more than 12 Gt/year. Enough to change the fate of our climate.
Our team
18
Team members
5
Advisors
Join us
As individuals, all we can do is trying to pollute less at a personal level.
As a team, we can build technical solutions that make it cheaper not to pollute, that scale. Such cost-effective solutions might be the only way to prevent the bulk of the damage from climate change – in time. Before it is too late.
You, too, can be part of our solutions. You can act today.