German climate start-up HyperHeat has raised the sum of €3.5 million or approximately USD $3.7 million in its new funding round, earmarked for developing and testing solutions that employ renewable energy sources to generate zero-carbon industrial heat. Founded in 2023 by Dr. Lars Amsbeck and Frederick Lessmann, HyperHeat will focus on one of the most difficult areas of industrial decarbonization: high-temperature heating, a process critical to many heavy industries, such as steel, cement, and chemical production. At more than 40 percent, those sectors are among the largest emitters of CO2 in the world, with high-temperature heating processes dominating their carbon intensity.
The extraction of steel, cement, and chemicals often requires very high temperatures; for decades, these processes have been dependent on the energy from fossil fuels. Such energy-intensive processes produce considerable amounts of carbon dioxide, which significantly contributes to global emissions. As global efforts increase to cut down on greenhouse gas emissions, heavy industry decarbonization becomes even more critical, not only for the significant temperatures involved but also for the scarcity of scalable and cost-effective alternatives to fossil fuel-based energy sources. Even with the significant progress in renewable energy, electrification, and hydrogen solutions, the current limitations in the grids have posed challenges to deploying such alternatives at an industrial scale.
HyperHeat addresses these issues by providing a system powered electrically, that can reach even 2000°C. This temperature, in particular, is required for the bulk of industrial processes. The company’s application of ultra-hot resistive heating using oxide ceramics possesses strong potential to be a game-changing decarbonization approach for high-temperature industrial processes. There will be an available solution in this regard, retrofitting industrial furnaces that are compatible with existing installations and provides cost-effective emission reduction. Industry sectors that rely on fossil fuel-powered heating could quickly be transitioned to renewable electricity through HyperHeat’s industrial heater.
According to Frederick Lessmann, co-founder of the company, its solution is practical: it is not only a game-changing way to reduce emissions, but it is also an economical and scalable solution for industrial companies. Already under pressure to reduce emissions from carbon regulations and market forces, companies today will have reason to look for other alternatives in their heating system. “HyperHeat,” an electric heater-like facility, is engineered to attain flame-like temperatures of unprecedented efficiency and durability, giving it a head over high-temperature heat requirements for industries.
The capital raised in this funding round will go into the continued development and testing of HyperHeat’s first industrial products, which are expected to be in service by 2025. Other than expanding its research and development efforts, the company will collaborate with pilot customers to deploy the technology in real-world industrial environments. The investment will also help HyperHeat strengthen and scale its solution to become accessible to industries seeking decarbonization of their operations.
The other co-founder for HyperHeat also included Dr. Lars Amsbeck as putting emphasis on the firm’s broader ambition-the global goal of addressing emissions. He pointed out that industrial heat generation accounts for nearly 16 percent of global CO2 emissions, thus underlining the crucial role decarbonising this sector could play in the attainment of climate objectives. Providing a transformative solution to industrially generate heat and economically feasible, HyperHeat could make significant contributions towards reducing carbon emissions from one of the most challenging sectors to decarbonise.
This investment round was led by the Amadeus APEX Technology Fund, with additional investments coming from various prominent investors like Finindus, Possible Ventures, E44 Ventures, Breakthrough Energy Fellows, and a pool of business angel investors. Wolfgang Neubert, General Partner at APEX Ventures, stated the firm believes that HyperHeat will bring significant change to the industrial decarbonization sector. He praised the founding team for the unparalleled combination of technical excellence and strategic vision-he credited it as what makes them unique in the market that’s rapidly changing with regard to sustainable industrial solutions. According to Neubert, the technology developed by HyperHeat can play a crucial role in reducing carbon emissions while supporting sustainable industrial growth.
HyperHeat’s solution is part of a more general trend in industrial decarbonization, with companies looking for technological solutions to replace fossil-based process routes with cleaner and renewable alternatives. As industries and companies across the world strive to meet newer emissions targets, there is likely to be a place for solutions like HyperHeat’s electric heaters in reaching such objectives. HyperHeat’s funding round is awaited with increasing demands from regulators and the market to reduce the emission of gases. The demand for scaleable and cost-efficient decarbonization solutions is expected to rise exponentially in the years to come.
The completion of this funding round is an important step towards the company’s goal of helping transform the industrial heating sector. As the technology progresses, it will be able to change the approach of entire industries to heat generation-an alternative that can definitely make a huge difference in the reduction of emissions from some of the most carbon-intensive sectors in the global economy. If HyperHeat achieves its ambitions, then this company will certainly play a significant role in an eventual decarbonization of heavy industry and the achievement of global climate goals.