Refrigerant-free heat pump heading for market

Emerging from the labs of Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Physical Measurement Techniques IPM, start-up Qurie aims to bring to market solid-state heat pump technology that is based on electrocaloric materials.

For over a decade, Fraunhofer IPM has been conducting research on electro-, magneto-, and elastocaloric heat pumps. This has enabled researchers to calibrate potential innovations for cooling effectiveness, robustness, energy efficiency and commercial viability.

Qurie will focus on the electrocaloric cooling technology the researchers have invented. The heat pumps work by using the temperature change of a solid-state material under the influence of an electric field to establish a cooling cycle.

In contrast to traditional heat pumps, there is no compressor unit and no refrigerant involved. And unlike magneto- or elastocaloric materials, the system design does not need magnets or actuator systems.

The key innovation is a globally patented concept for heat dissipation based on active electrocaloric heat pipes (AEH). AEH enable rapid latent heat transfer through the evaporation and condensation of a fluid, such as ethanol or water, on the caloric material.

“With our heat pipe approach, we dissipate heat very efficiently within the system and can thus achieve significantly higher pump frequencies than were previously possible with heat transport via liquids,” says Doctor Kilian Bartholomé, Group Manager at Fraunhofer IPM and co-founder of Qurie.

The research has shown that caloric systems can theoretically exceed 80% of possible thermodynamic efficiency, compared to compressor-based heat pumps which can reach 50% of possible thermodynamic efficiency. The new systems can therefore deliver a significant saving in operational power requirements. They are also low maintenance, and quiet when operating due to the absence of a compressor.

In April 2026, a seed funding round took place with High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), the Technology Transfer Fund TT49 of the European Investment Fund (EIF), and Aepikur. Ongoing development work will be supported in parallel with the company’s launch until the end of 2026 under a research program funded by Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy.

Initial market opportunities have been identified in control cabinet and laser cooling applications. The company also has plans to develop electrocaloric systems for commercial cooling, and further down the track, the consumer market.

Find out more about how the technology works here.

Image from Fraunhofer IPM: the founding team of Qurie GmbH in front of their newly occupied laboratory and office space in the Haid industrial park in Freiburg. The team is led by Dr Kilian Bartholomé (left) and Dr Christian Vogel (second from right).

---