Futraheat secures Innovate UK funding for Greensteam 360 heat pump project

The London-based company has secured £689,000 from Innovate UK’s Combined Investor Partnership programme and is looking for an industrial partner to host the 18-month project.

The Innovate UK funds have been combined with existing investment from Clean Growth Fund, which earlier this year provided £1.5m to deliver what will be a £1m scheme.

In a statement, Tom Taylor, CEO at Futraheat said: “We are putting out a nationwide call to find an early-mover industrial user who would like to host this ground-breaking £1m trial.

“Seventy per cent of all industrial energy demand is for heat, and a significant amount of this is for process heat in the 100-200^oC range – usually delivered as high temperature steam in industries including pharmaceuticals, food and brewing.

“Usually, this heat goes to waste. Our technology recycles low-grade waste heat and boosts it by up to 60 degrees – delivering useful heat back to the customer at up to 150^oC. This not only slashes energy use by more than 80 percent but can also radically reduce energy bills and a business’s CO₂.”

Futraheat’s high temperature heat pump is built around the firm’s patented TurboClaw compressor technology, which can cost-effectively boost waste heat to above boiling point.

The company is currently testing their Greensteam 330 concept demonstrator at their Surbiton test facility which uses single-stage compression to deliver a 30^oC temperature lift.

The Greensteam 360 pilot unit will be designed for mass manufacture and will extend the temperature lift to 60^oC with a two-stage TurboClaw design.

“We are grateful to Innovate UK for their significant support and look forward to developing this product with an industry partner to deliver a product which not only pays for itself but delivers an easily adopted route to lower carbon industry,” said Taylor.