EEETHOS at 12 months: from concepts to progress
EEETHOS marks its first year with key technological advances across five industries
As we are entering 2026, the EEETHOS project is glad to report some advancements after the completion of the first year of its progress. We have moved from early concepts to engineering progress across multiple of the key industrial sectors we tackle. While many innovations are still under development, the first year has already delivered important building blocks for cleaner, decarbonised, more energy-efficient heat.
Across five industrial demonstration cases, partners have focused on one common goal: recovering waste heat, upgrading it with technologies running on electricity, and putting it back to work in real industrial processes. We invite you to read about our key highlights from the project’s first year below.
New high-temperature steam compressor design finalised, prototype manufacturing in process
A major technical milestone has been reached with the development of the new high-temperature steam compressor design specifically for demanding industrial heat applications.
The novel unit designed by SRM can upgrade heat from 130 °C to 200 °C, supplying 500 kW of heat to the asphalt applications, enabling heat to be upgraded to levels that were previously difficult to achieve with electric solutions. Manufacturing of the prototype has already started, with delivery planned for 2026.
While the first application will be in asphalt production, the technology is being explored for many other drying and heating processes, opening new opportunities for electrifying high-temperature heat.
High-temperature heat pump for asphalt production takes shape
Significant progress has also been made on a cascade heat pump system by Oilon for the asphalt industry. The system is designed to produce 130 °C steam using excess energy recovered directly from the asphalt manufacturing process.
The design phase has advanced from concept to detailed engineering, with major components already selected. The system uses natural refrigerants, ensuring both high efficiency and long-term regulatory compatibility.
Rethinking asphalt drying: up to 70% energy savings identified
In parallel, partners have assessed alternative drying technologies for asphalt production. A detailed comparison between conventional drum dryers and innovative belt dryers revealed that both could reduce primary energy use by more than 70% when properly combined with advanced heat pump and steam compression technologies.
Further project phases will determine which solution offers the best balance of technical performance, cost, and sustainability.
New test installation for superheated steam drying
In the building materials sector, work is underway on a dedicated test installation for brick drying using superheated steam combined with mechanical vapour compression by CEE and other partners.
Key engineering decisions such as test chamber size and compressor options have already been made, ensuring that the setup remains both experimentally flexible and industrially relevant. A digital simulation model supports the design, allowing performance to be evaluated before construction begins.
Use case Milestone!
The project has now completed the detailed use case definitions for all five industrial demonstrators, mapping how heat flows through each process and where waste heat can be recovered and upgraded. This gives a clear picture of the “degrees of freedom” in each plant, where intervention is possible, how far electrification can be pushed, and what technical and site-specific constraints should be respected.
With this common, data-driven baseline in place, the technology development and digital twin work can now target real optimisation potential rather than theoretical scenarios, ensuring that the coming demonstrators are both technically sound and economically relevant for industry.
Digital twins move from theory to reality
One of the most important cross-cutting achievements of the first year is the creation of the digital-twin framework, in which the EEETHOS technologies are integrated to replicate the operational behavior of the demonstration plants.
Exemplary real-time data from a sensor installed in one industrial demonstrator is already being streamed into a shared data platform created by DTI, which allows the connection between real data, digital twins and the LCA platform. This proves that the digital architecture can interact with real industrial processes, not just theoretical datasets.
Initial digital-twin services under development include:
- Set point optimisation
- Online calibration
- Fault detection
- Monitoring of fouling and degradation
Over the coming months, additional demonstrators will be connected, enabling digital tools to support real-time operational decisions.
A new partner joins EEETHOS: Pirobloc strengthens the steel demonstrator
The EEETHOS consortium has recently been strengthened with the addition of Pirobloc, a company with extensive experience in high-temperature thermal fluid heating systems for industrial applications. Pirobloc joins the project at a key moment and will play an important role in the steel demonstrator, contributing practical expertise in thermal system design and integration.
Their involvement reinforces EEETHOS’ focus on industrial relevance and scalability, supporting the development of electrified heat solutions that can be transferred beyond the project to real steel manufacturing environments across Europe.
A solid foundation for the years ahead
By completing detailed use-case definitions for all five industrial demonstrators, EEETHOS now has a clear, data-driven understanding of how heat flows through each process and where electrification and efficiency gains are realistically achievable.
With core technologies taking shape, test facilities under design, and digital tools already interacting with real processes, the project enters its second year ready to turn engineering progress into industrial impact.
