New Electric Heat Pumps Chase Fossil Fuels Out Of Boilers

Support CleanTechnica’s work through a Substack subscription or on Stripe.

Steam boilers are long overdue for a 21st century makeover. The ubiquitous equipment came into widespread use during the 19th century, sucking up vast quantities of coal, oil, or gas to make steam for papermaking and food processing, among many other industries, and the sucking continues to this day. That may finally come to an end now that industrial-scale electric heat pumps are emerging in the market, and the US startup AtmosZero has a plan for that.

Federal Policy Or Not, Here Comes The Electric Heat Pump Boiler

Despite the sharp U-turn in federal energy policy, US innovators just keep innovating, and now some of those innovations are hitting the mainstream market. AtmosZero is among the frontrunners. The company has just announced a new agreement with an A-list marketing partner, the 70-year-old boiler supplier R.F. MacDonald.

Heat pumps have already emerged as the heroes of the residential electrification movement. They are more energy efficient than conventional heating and cooling systems powered by natural gas, and oil heat, to boot.  They also also save energy — and money — compared to electric baseboard heating systems. Scaling up the technology to produce steam for commercial and industrial operations is a next-level challenge.

AtmosZero busted out of stealth mode in 2023, when it introduced a 650-kilowatt electric boiler to the Colorado beermaker New Belgium Brewing. The installation was a pilot project in partnership with the Danish legacy engineering firm Danfoss.

Not letting the grass grow under its feet, in 2024 AtmosZero again partnered with Danfoss, along with the Dutch firm International Flavors & Fragrances, Wisconsin-based Alliant Energy, and the University of Colorado, to implement a $3.1 million grant from the US Department of Energy, aimed at producing an electric heat pump capable of delivering 200°C steam and 0°C cooling for commercial and industrial users.

Accelerating Commerical & Industrial Decarbonization

Things have been moving quickly for AtmosZero since then. In February of 2025, the company announced the opening of its new “Boiler 2.0” manufacturing campus in Loveland, Colorado. As described by AtmosZero, the initial plan was to produce 100 copies of its new heat pump boilers. They may have to pick up the pace, now that R.F. MacDonald is on board.

AtmosZero announced the new partnership on February 24, noting that the hookup pairs its new technology with “a trusted channel that can deploy it across engineering firms, end users, and boiler rooms at commercial and industrial scales.”

“The partnership with R.F. MacDonald strengthens AtmosZero’s commercial momentum by opening access to pivotal markets focused on emissions reduction,” the startup emphasized.

On its part, R.F. MacDonald is eager to grow its business  with an assist from the new boilers. “Leveraging AtmosZero’s unique steam heat pump boiler technology, we will be able to serve customers where traditional gas fired designs are constrained, but steam is required,” R.F. Macdonald CEO Jim Lowell explained in a press statement.

“The opportunity to serve customers with hybrid solutions puts us in a strategic position to advance the Boiler Industry overall,” Lowell added, taking note of the opportunity to help commercial and industrial clients adopt a new generation of energy efficient, high-performing boilers.

The AtmosZero Advantage

The partnership with a longstanding boiler provider dovetails neatly into AtmosZero’s business model, in which deploys a modular system serves as a drop-in replacement for a conventional combustion boiler, without the fossil energy baggage.

“We can work just like a combustion boiler,” Stark explained in a profile of the company posted by MIT News on January 20. “At the end of the day, customers don’t want to change how their manufacturing facilities operate in order to electrify.”

While other electrification options exist, AtmosZero expects to beat them on operational costs. “The company says its first 1-megawatt steam system is far cheaper to operate than commercially available electric solutions thanks to ultra-efficient compressor technology, which uses 50 percent less electricity than electric resistive boilers,” observes MIT News reporter Zach Winn.

Stark and his team had to wade through a series of obstacles to deliver the goods with heat pump technology. “The fundamental challenge of delivering heat is that the higher your heat pump is raising the air temperature, the lower your maximum efficiency. It runs into thermodynamic limitations,” Stark told MIT News.

The solution involves cycling heat from ambient air into a liquid heat transfer medium, which serves to evaporate the refrigerant and recover heat from the refrigerant as it cools.

“By designing for optimum efficiency in the operational windows that matter for the refrigerants we’re using, and for the precision manufacturing of our compressors, we’re able to maximize the individual stages of compression to maximize operational efficiency,” Stark summarized.

Next Steps For The Heat Pump Revolution

A fresh round of activity has also been ramping up in the residential heat pump field, where the startup Quilt has also been pursuing relationships with established companies in the field. As of last December, Quilt attracted more than 60 partners covering 16 US states and five Canadian provinces. The company currently has more than 90 certified partners on its roster.

On February 17, Quilt also announced a new partnership with the leading firm Southern Home Services, covering nine markets in four new states: Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Texas. “The partnership represents one of the largest single expansions in Quilt’s history and demonstrates how software-first climate systems are attracting established industry players seeking differentiation in an increasingly competitive market,” Quilt explained.

“We’re intentional about the technology we put behind our service teams,” emphasized SHS CEO Drew Poskon, “Quilt’s focus on performance, installer support, and diagnostics aligns with how we operate.”

Regardless of all the hot air blowing against electrification and energy efficiency, money talks, and SHS has spotted an opportunity to grow its business while helping to push fossil energy out of the home HVAC picture.

Keep an eye on another US innovator in the heat pump field, Gradient. The company has developed a system that can slip into a window, paring installation costs down to the bone.

Photo: The US heat pump startup AtmosZero has enlisted the legacy boiler supplier R.F. MacDonald to help boot fossil fuels out of commercial and industrial steam systems (cropped, courtesy of AtmosZero).