ecop and the EIC Accelerator: A Spinning Heat Pump for Industry

ecop, registered in Vienna in 2011 and now based in Wiener Neudorf, makes the Rotation Heat Pump, an industrial heat pump in which the entire thermodynamic cycle takes place inside a spinning rotor, using a gas mixture instead of synthetic refrigerants to recover waste heat and deliver process heat at up to 200 °C. Its EIC Accelerator project, "REHEAT: REcycled industrial HEAT", receives an EU contribution of €2,499,999 and ran from December 2024 to August 2026, according to CORDIS. It aimed to develop and prototype a completely new rotor made by microchannel diffusion bonding, fusing etched steel plates into one block that carries the whole cycle and allows temperature lifts of 100 K or more.

The first report describes a near-complete redesign: the rotor, water and gas connections, a 300-kilowatt fan motor and the housing, each change checked by fluid dynamics and structural simulation, "which made the development process very lengthy", according to CORDIS. After a proof-of-concept block met expectations, the first rotor, made of five bonded sub-blocks, was built, though "the production was very complicated". The report shows the housing of the first K7.3 prototype. ecop said in 2024 the new rotor has about 300,000 channels and the machine is almost half the size of its predecessor, according to ecop. No test results of the complete new machine have been published.

Where ecop Stands Now

In May 2025 ecop raised €10.5 million in a round led by the German pump maker KSB and co-invested by the EIC Fund, to expand production and make the new rotor ready for series production, according to ecop. In April 2026 it won EU Innovation Fund support for GRIP, a factory in Austria with capacity for 100 heat pumps a year, with investment of up to €13.2 million, according to ecop. North Data lists 20 employees in 2025. Its Austrian accounts were not accessible in free sources.

The Technology: A Heat Pump That Spins

Heat accounts for 74% of industrial energy use, 90% of it from fossil fuels, the EIC report says. ecop says its machine closes a gap for renewable industrial heat up to 200 °C. It rotates the whole cycle so that centrifugal force compresses the working gas, and the new diffusion-bonded rotor removes seals and moving parts within the block, allowing higher speeds, pressures and temperatures. The company holds 68 active patents, the report says.

What the EIC Award Promised, and What the Record Shows

The project has ended. The new rotor exists and the machine around it was redesigned, which is the core of what the EIC paid for. The public report stops before testing, and ecop has not released performance data from the new prototype. The investment round and factory funding show that investors and the EU expect it to work.

1. MCDB rotor builtDeliveredFive sub-blocks.
2. Machine redesignedDeliveredK7.3 housing built.
3. Prototype performance provenNot publishedNo test data.
4. Scale-up financingSecured€10.5M, factory funding.

The Money

ecop is one of the EIC awardees where the equity half arrived: the EIC Fund co-invested in the KSB-led round, after the EIC had offered up to €6 million of equity; the amount invested was not disclosed. It has also drawn on EU money repeatedly, including a €1.75 million grant for the Rotation Heat Pump from 2018, according to North Data.

What Cannot Be Checked

Why Europe Should Care

Industrial heat is still mostly fossil-fuelled, the EIC report says. A European heat pump design backed by a major European pump maker, with a factory planned in Austria, fits EU industrial policy closely.

The Verdict

ecop and the EIC have not been asked for comment for this article. It is based entirely on public records and published statements, linked throughout.