More than two centuries after the steam boiler helped launch the Industrial Revolution, it remains central to modern manufacturing. Now Addison Stark, CEO and co founder of AtmosZero and a former MIT researcher, is leading an effort to rethink how that steam is produced. Rather than burning natural gas, oil, or coal to boil water, his team is developing an electric, modular heat pump system designed to deliver industrial steam with significantly lower emissions.
AzariJafari, H., Manav, I. B., Rahimi, M., Moore, E., Huet, B., Levy, C., & Kirchain, R. (2025). Carbon uptake dynamics of cement-based materials: Linking market structure, material use, and the carbon cycle. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 122(51). https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2515116122
Steam is still one of the most widely used working fluids in industry. It powers processes in paper mills, chemical plants, pharmaceutical facilities, and food manufacturing sites. Yet generating steam through combustion is carbon intensive. Estimates suggest that more than 2.2 gigatons of carbon dioxide are emitted each year globally to produce steam, accounting for over 5 percent of energy related emissions. That makes industrial heat a critical but often under discussed part of the energy transition.
Addison Stark, CEO and co founder of AtmosZero and a former MIT researcher stated,
“Steam is the most important working fluid ever. Today everything is built around the ubiquitous availability of steam. Cost-effectively electrifying that requires innovation that can scale. In other words, it requires a mass-produced product—not one-off projects.”
Research published in 2020 in the journal Joule argued that meaningful industrial decarbonization will require focused efforts on process heat, particularly in the low to mid temperature range. Many industrial applications require temperatures below 200 degrees Celsius, which opens the possibility for advanced heat pump systems to replace combustion boilers. That research helped frame the technical direction later pursued by AtmosZero, which Stark founded in 2022 with compressor expert Todd Bandhauer of Colorado State University and energy systems specialist Ashwin Salvi.
While heat pumps are common in residential and commercial buildings, adapting them to produce industrial steam presents distinct engineering challenges. Efficiency typically drops as the required temperature lift increases, and compressor performance becomes a limiting factor. AtmosZero’s system is engineered to deliver steam at temperatures up to 150 degrees Celsius, placing it within the range needed for many manufacturing operations. The company reports that its 1 megawatt modular unit uses roughly half the electricity required by conventional electric resistive boilers to produce the same amount of steam.
The efficiency gains come largely from a multi stage compressor architecture and a carefully optimized refrigerant cycle. In operation, the system draws low temperature heat from ambient air or water, transfers that energy to a working fluid, and evaporates a refrigerant within a closed loop. The refrigerant is then compressed in stages, raising its temperature before transferring heat to boil water and generate steam. By recovering heat within the cycle, the system improves overall performance compared to direct electric heating.
A key design consideration has been compatibility with existing infrastructure. Industrial facilities are typically engineered around established steam systems, and operators are reluctant to accept major process disruptions. The modular units are intended to function as drop in replacements for combustion boilers, minimizing changes to plant layout and operations. According to the company, installation can be completed quickly, with limited downtime.
AtmosZero has already deployed a 650 kilowatt pilot system at a customer site near its headquarters in Loveland, Colorado. The current focus is on demonstrating durability and reliability across seasonal operating conditions while building a pipeline of additional installations. The company is targeting facilities with peak thermal loads below 10 megawatts, a segment that represents a large share of manufacturing plants in the United States.
Electrifying industrial heat is not solely a matter of engineering. Adoption will depend on electricity pricing, grid carbon intensity, and capital investment cycles within industry. Heat pumps operating at higher temperatures inevitably face thermodynamic limits, and further improvements in compressor technology and refrigerant selection will influence performance gains. Even so, many steam intensive sectors fall within the temperature range that modern heat pump systems can address.
Other decarbonization efforts focus on hydrogen, carbon capture, or fundamental changes to industrial chemistry. The approach taken by AtmosZero is more incremental. Rather than eliminating steam, it seeks to change how steam is generated. Given the central role steam has played in industrial design for more than 160 years, replacing the fuel source while keeping the underlying process intact may offer a practical route toward lower emissions manufacturing.
Adrian graduated with a Masters Degree (1st Class Honours) in Chemical Engineering from Chester University along with Harris. His master’s research aimed to develop a standardadised clean water oxygenation transfer procedure to test bubble diffusers that are currently used in the wastewater industry commercial market. He has also undergone placments in both US and China primarely focused within the R&D department and is an associate member of the Institute of Chemical Engineers (IChemE).
