Scalable modular heat pump product pathway for India’s sub-200oC industrial heat

Problem Overview: Lack of scalable modular heat pump products

Industry accounts for roughly 41% of India’s total GHG emissions including Scope 2 (indirect emissions). ~35% of India’s total industrial thermal energy demand (~ 996 TWh) is required at temperatures below 200⁰C. This is the thermodynamic sweet spot for heat pump technology and represents a potential to decarbonize 10-12% of India’s total emissions.

The barrier is not thermodynamic, but of product architecture. Commercially available industrial heat pumps top out at hundreds of kW, while industrial processes require continuous thermal loads in multi-MW quantities. No off-the-shelf modular product currently bridges this gap. Custom-engineered MW-scale installations exist internationally, but are bespoke, capital-intensive projects with high design costs, and long implementation timelines, not suitable for scale deployment across India’s MSME-heavy industrial base.

Core Bottlenecks: Meeting Efficiency, Space & Cost Targets at Higher Temperatures

While temperature range of 100⁰C and below is considered established (with payback period of 2-3 years), innovation and research is happening to increase COP at higher temperature levels to demonstrate viability for ~ 160-200⁰C. Even then, the key challenges are:

Existing Approaches and Technology Readiness

Where is the white-space for innovation?

There is an opportunity to develop modular, MW-scale industrial heat pumps as products, rather than bespoke projects. There is a need for innovation on working fluid science, compression technology, modular architecture, heat exchanger and integration, as well as deployment and business model innovation: