Blue Heart Energy and the EIC Accelerator: A Heat Pump Using Sound

Almost every heat pump today moves heat by compressing a chemical refrigerant, and those refrigerants are increasingly regulated. Blue Heart Energy, founded in 2016 in Heemskerk in the Netherlands, uses a different principle: thermoacoustics, in which sound waves in a sealed gas move heat. Its BlueHeart engine is meant to replace the compressor in a heat pump, running without harmful refrigerants, quietly, and at both low and high temperatures.

The European Innovation Council granted €2,471,508 towards a €3.57 million project, which ended in 2024 with a minimum viable product. In April 2025 the US climate technology group Copeland and the EIC Fund invested, and in May 2026 the company announced public support for a factory. Ten years after its founding, the product is still not on sale.

Where Blue Heart Energy Stands Today

In April 2025 the company announced an investment from Copeland, a large maker of compressors and heating and cooling technology, and the EIC Fund. The amount was not disclosed. Copeland's chief executive Ross B. Shuster said it would help Blue Heart take the technology "to commercial readiness", with support in design for manufacturing and access to sales channels.

In May 2026 Blue Heart announced support from the EU's Just Transition Fund to set up a production and assembly facility in the IJmond region, including a proof-of-concept production line for mass production of the engine. It showed the engine at Hannover Messe in April 2026. According to an interview the company republished from Vakblad Warmtepompen, heat pumps from the Ecoforest brand will be the first to use the 6 kW engine, a field test at a housing corporation is under way, and "the first heat pumps will appear on the market in the spring of 2027". No sales have been made yet.

The Technology: Heat Moved by Sound

In a thermoacoustic engine, a loud standing sound wave in a pressurised gas makes the gas compress and expand, pumping heat along a component called a regenerator. There are no chemical refrigerants. The CORDIS report says the engine addresses four limits of today's heat pumps: it can deliver both low and high temperatures, suiting new and older houses; it can lower production and installation costs; it runs silently; and it uses no HFC refrigerants. The report does not give efficiency figures.

What the EIC Project Promised, and What CORDIS Shows

The project ran from January 2022 to June 2024. CORDIS reports that Blue Heart reached a minimum viable product through optimisation cycles, integrated and tested the engine in a customer's heat pump, continued endurance and performance testing, signed letters of intent with commercial partners, set up suppliers for critical components and drew up a production line, and that "BHE is ready to establish its first production line and to run first productions".

1. A working thermoacoustic engineDeliveredMVP and integration in a customer heat pump.
2. Commercial partnersDeliveredLOIs, then Copeland as investor.
3. ProductionPlannedFactory announced in 2026; no production output reported.
4. Published performanceNot shownNo efficiency figures in the public record.

What Has Happened Since the Award

The Money

Neither the Copeland and EIC Fund investment nor the Just Transition Fund support has a published amount. The EIC award was "grant first"; the EIC Fund's later investment turned it, in effect, into blended finance. As a small Dutch company, Blue Heart files abridged accounts, so its finances are not public.

Why Europe Should Care

The EU is phasing down fluorinated refrigerants and wants millions more heat pumps installed. A heat pump engine that needs no refrigerant at all, built in a Dutch industrial region in transition, would serve both aims, and a global heating player has bought into it.

The Verdict

Blue Heart Energy has not been asked for comment for this article. It is based entirely on public records, company statements and EU project data, linked throughout.