In October 2025, British industrial heat pump startup HotGreen Solutions announced a £1.2 million ($1.6 million/€1.4 million) pre-seed funding round, which featured participation from Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP). In addition to its investment, CCEP announced that it would trial HotGreen’s new heat pump.
“We see real impact potential in HotGreen’s approach to energy-efficient heating ‒ which aligns with our own sustainability ambitions,” said Sashidar Rajendra, Associate Director of Ventures at CCEP. “We are excited to see how their innovation could help accelerate us toward our 2040 net-zero targets.”
Starting a new heat pump company from the ground up is no easy feat. Neither is getting buy-in early on from one of the biggest beverage companies on the planet. To learn why CCEP is so bullish on HotGreen, NaturalRefrigerants.com spoke with Georgia Ware, the startup’s Co-founder and CEO.
“Conventional air-to-steam adiabatic compression heat pumps achieve a COP of around 2.0 while generating significant waste heat,” Ware said. “We can increase the COP to as high as 2.8 by maintaining a nearly constant gas temperature using isothermal compression.”
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What can you tell us about the heat pump HotGreen Solutions is building?
Georgia Ware: At the heart of our system is a very innovative new compressor design. Using hydrocarbon refrigerants with our compressor supports achieving low-temperature steam for industrial processes in a single-stage lift from air source. Our novel isothermal compression technology helps us overcome historic restrictions of heat pump technology whilst boosting COP. The first heat pump deployments will provide low-temperature steam up to 120 [248°F].
Our units are source agnostic. We can pull heat from the air, the ground or a waste heat stream. The models come in 0.5MW [142.2TR] increments. However, the design incorporates a stackable system, which enables right-sizing of our solutions to customer needs. We can do anything from 100kW [28.4TR] upwards. For example, if you were to do a 2MW [569.7TR] installation, you would use four of our modules.
With CCEP, we’re looking at a sub-scale pilot deployment toward the end of 2026. We’re really looking at reliability and efficiency as our two core metrics here.
With all the hydrocarbon heat pumps on the European market, how will HotGreen distinguish itself?
GW: We are not in the first wave of innovation, which showcased that the technology works. We are in the second wave, which is about the right levels of affordability, ease of adoption and flexibility to support a wide range of industrial requirements.
Affordability comes from manufacturing and high efficiency. At HotGreen, we’ve widely adopted affordable manufacturing techniques. Our smart compressor design with isothermal compression allows us to get far higher COPs than our competitors, which means paying less in terms of energy bills. Our unique compressor technology enables us to do a single-stage lift from air to steam. We therefore only need to have one compressor in our system, and not have the complexities of multi-stage systems as found in other designs.
With air as a heat source, we can match the boiler industry’s three- to five-day installation period. We use ambient air, which typically averages 10°C [50°F] in Europe, to deliver steam at 120°C without a lengthy project to capture the waste heat stream.
What is HotGreen’s strategic vision and how do you see the product evolving over the next few years?
GW: Our core goal is to develop a heat pump well-suited for industrial requirements for process heat. Not just a green alternative, but one that outcompetes incumbent fossil-fuel boilers.
Our system has to have both an affordable levelized cost of heat, and be easy to work with. Our core focus at present is in developing the best low-carbon heating solution for our customers, and we have an awesome team of engineers to do that.
Our initial focus is on the European food and beverage industry as this is where we see the greatest need and strongest business case. While our first product to market will be for steam at up to 120˚C, we are looking to work with different refrigerants that will enable us to utilize our compressor technology for even higher temperature lifts (up to 220˚C).
“Conventional air-to-steam adiabatic compression heat pumps achieve a COP of around 2.0. We can increase the COP to as high as 2.8 by maintaining a nearly constant gas temperature.”
Georgia Ware, the HotGreen Solutions’ Co-founder and CEO
