SPH nominated twice for the 2026 dena Energy Award

Electrifying industrial process heat and efficiently utilizing available waste heat are important levers for industrial decarbonization. Two projects featuring high-temperature heat pump technology from SPH, now part of Copeland, have been nominated for the 2026 dena Energy Award.

A jury comprising representatives from academia, industry, the media, and government selected a total of twelve projects that demonstrate how companies can use innovative solutions to optimize energy use, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and strengthen their competitiveness at the same time.

AHEAD: Process steam from industrial waste heat

The AHEAD (Advanced Heat Pump Demonstrator) project at the Vienna production site of international pharmaceutical company Takeda has been nominated in the “Go smart! – Energy efficiency through technologies” category. Jointly implemented by Takeda, the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology, and SPH, the project demonstrates how available waste heat can be upgraded to a higher temperature level using a cascaded high-temperature heat pump solution and reused in production.

With its ThermBooster™, SPH provided the high-temperature heat pump technology. At the Takeda site, the system recovers waste heat from hot water and uses it to generate steam. The steam is then further compressed to reach up to 11 bar(a) and 184 °C. The system delivers approximately 1.7 MW of thermal output and around 2.5 metric tons of steam per hour. This can reduce CO₂ emissions by up to 1,600 metric tons per year.

traceless materials: Process heat for biomaterial production

A joint project by SPH and traceless materials GmbH, a manufacturer of bio-based alternatives to plastics, has also been nominated, in the “Move forward! – Integrated strategies and measures for climate neutrality” category. In this project, the ThermBooster™ supplies process heat for the production of biomaterials.

Two nominations recognize industrial heat pump technology

“We are delighted to receive these two nominations. They demonstrate the wide range of applications for high-temperature heat pumps in industry – from utilizing industrial waste heat to generate steam to providing lower-carbon process heat for new production processes,” says Christoph Rau, Sales Manager at SPH.

The award ceremony will take place during the dena Congress in Berlin on November 9, 2026.