Using renewable energy techniques to power high-temperature industrial processes
We speak to Frederick Lessmann of HyperHeat about his company’s high-temperature industrial heating solution using renewable energy. HyperHeat was a New Energy Challenge winner in 2024.
The NEC helped extend our focus and made us realise that what we are developing is a platform of technologies that can be applied in different configurations.
How would you describe your technology and what it does?
In heavy industry, the traditional approach to achieving high process temperatures of up to 2,000°C is to burn cheap hydrocarbons derived from fossil fuels. These high temperatures enable companies to run processes like melting materials or promoting chemical reactions. Our technology uses renewable electrons to deliver the necessary heat at the same temperature without the typical degradation of the heating system. We are developing two systems – one that you can think of as a giant electric hairdryer and the other as a giant toaster – used to power industrial furnaces at the megawatt scale.
In what ways did participating in and winning the NEC 2024 shape your business?
It’s still relatively recent for us, but the NEC win coincided with the fundraising of our pre-seed round, and it was helpful to get proof points of interest from major industry players. We were nominees for the Shell GameChanger programme and then invited to participate in the NEC programme.
Discussions and interactions with potential customers also encouraged us to develop our systems for hybrid furnace operations. By creating a system that offers the option to mix power sources and to select and use energy types depending on when they are the cheapest option, HyperHeat’s electric heaters already offer customers unmatched flexibility and profitability at current energy prices.
What does the future hold for you?
We are currently building the first pilot of our “giant hairdryer” concept. Our aim is to have a system that can reach 2,000°C. The target for the first pilot is a bit less, but it will be an important proof point for this generation method, as will its first integration into an industrial process.
What would your advice for this year’s participants be?
I would tell this year’s winner to really use the resources in the programme to get a clear understanding of the needs of potential customers and to understand the process application that they want to address.
What was the main lesson you learnt from the NEC?
Take the opportunity to understand your timelines and expectations for a project with a large corporation as a customer, because ultimately you will have to navigate a path through big and complex operations. For us, I would say that was the most valuable takeaway from the programme.
The NEC also helped extend our focus and made us realise that what we are developing is a platform of technologies that can be applied in different configurations. Before the NEC, we were focused on using our gas heater system (the “hairdryer”) to replace existing natural gas burners. During the NEC, we realised that there were lots of applications for furnace retrofitting. This led us to think about a completely new concept (the “giant toaster”) that could be applied to different furnace types.
How did the coaching and expert guidance sessions, provided by Rockstart, YES!Delft and/or Shell, help your company?
The coaching helped us draw fresh conclusions about our technology offer and the best way to present it to potential investors. At this stage of our company’s development, it’s been helpful to redraft the product-market fit and show that there are other options.
We have sharpened our product-market fit, and we are now working on a project to prove this. The coaching and interaction with experts helped us develop our offer.
