From Boilers to Heat Pumps: Electrifying Industrial Heat at Scale

The Imperative for Industrial Heat Electrification

Industrial heat is a critical pillar of manufacturing, underpinning essential processes across sectors such as food and beverage, chemicals, pulp and paper, and metallurgy. Whether it's pasteurizing milk, distilling solvents, drying paper pulp, or generating process steam, heat is indispensable to modern industry. However, this vital resource comes at a steep environmental cost. Today, industrial heat accounts for approximately two-thirds of the total energy consumption in the industrial sector, representing over 20% of total global energy demand, according to McKinsey & Company’s 2024 analysis. Shockingly, nearly 80% of this heat is still produced by directly combusting fossil fuels—primarily coal, natural gas, and oil—often in aging, inefficient boiler systems (for more information, check the article here: McKinsey, 2024).

This dependency on carbon-intensive heat sources makes industrial process heat a top priority for decarbonization. According to the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), industrial process heat alone is responsible for roughly 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions, a figure comparable to the combined emissions of the United States and India (for more information, check the article here: WBCSD, 2025). Without meaningful intervention, this single category of emissions could derail global climate targets—even as industries electrify their fleets and invest in green electricity.

The urgency of decarbonizing heat is compounded by its complexity. Unlike power or mobility, where electrification pathways are increasingly clear, heat involves diverse temperature levels, fluid media (steam, air, water, oil), and integration challenges within tightly optimized production systems. Yet, there is a promising and scalable solution: industrial heat pumps. Unlike boilers, which create heat by combusting fuel, heat pumps use electricity to transfer existing thermal energy from one location to another. This enables them to achieve coefficients of performance (COPs) between 3 and 5, meaning they can produce three to five units of usable heat for every unit of electricity consumed. In practical terms, they are significantly more energy-efficient than electric resistance heating or combustion-based systems, particularly when designed to recover and upgrade low-grade waste heat within the plant (for more information, check the article here: WBCSD Report).

As industrial players face rising pressure from regulators, investors, and supply chain partners to decarbonize, transitioning from traditional boilers to heat pumps stands out as one of the most impactful—and underutilized—strategies. It not only slashes Scope 1 emissions but also leverages the accelerating decarbonization of the electrical grid, making the heat cleaner over time. Moreover, with the potential for substantial operational savings, especially in regions with favorable electricity prices or incentives, heat pumps are increasingly being recognized not just as a green upgrade, but as a strategic investment.

Challenges in Pre-Engineering Industrial Heat Pump Systems

Despite the clear benefits, implementing industrial heat pumps is not straightforward. The pre-engineering phase—encompassing site modeling, system design, and techno-economic analysis—is fraught with challenges:

• Time-Intensive and Expensive: Traditional methods rely on manual data collection and bespoke simulations, often requiring 100+ hours of engineering work and costing tens of thousands of dollars per facility. (For more information, check the article here: California Energy Commission Report, 2024)

  
  

• Fragmented Information: Engineers must source data from various vendors, research papers, and government databases, leading to inefficiencies and potential inaccuracies.

  
  

• Outdated Tools: Many rely on spreadsheets or single-purpose calculators that cannot capture the dynamic interactions within a factory's thermal systems.

  
  

These challenges often result in suboptimal designs, oversized equipment, and missed opportunities for energy savings.

Industrial heat pumps (foreground) and traditional fossil-fuel boilers (background) operating side by side in a manufacturing facility—visually highlighting the transition from combustion-based heating to electrified, energy-efficient solutions at scale.

Leveraging Digital Twins and AI for Efficient Design

Emerging technologies like digital twins and AI-driven simulations offer solutions to these challenges:

• Digital Twins: By creating a virtual replica of a factory's energy system, engineers can visualize and analyze thermal profiles, identify waste heat sources, and test integration scenarios for heat pumps.

  
  

• AI-Driven Simulations: Advanced algorithms can rapidly evaluate multiple configurations, optimizing heat pump capacities, set-points, and storage tank sizes. This approach can reduce front-end engineering time by about 90%, from 120 hours down to 12 hours. (For more information, check the article here: California Energy Commission Report, 2024)

  
  

• Integrated Techno-Economic Analysis: Modern platforms can automatically generate detailed financial evaluations, including CAPEX, OPEX, ROI, and sensitivity analyses, enabling real-time scenario planning.

  
  

• Knowledge Retention: Each simulation contributes to a growing knowledge base, allowing AI to provide smarter default suggestions and ensuring consistency across projects.

  
  

Entropic's Platform: Revolutionizing Pre-Engineering

Entropic offers a cutting-edge platform designed to streamline the pre-engineering of industrial heat pump systems:

1. Data Ingestion & Site Modeling: Users can upload existing data—such as process flow diagrams and utility bills—and answer guided questionnaires. Entropic's platform then creates a thermodynamically accurate digital twin of the factory's thermal systems.

   
   

2. Parametric Equipment Simulation: Engineers can select from a library of validated equipment models, specifying requirements like desired output temperatures. The platform simulates performance under various operating conditions, including off-design scenarios.

   
   

3. Automated Technical & Financial Analysis: Entropic generates comprehensive reports detailing technical specifications, energy savings, emission reductions, and financial metrics, facilitating informed decision-making.

   
   

By automating repetitive tasks and providing a user-friendly interface, Entropic empowers engineers to focus on optimisation and strategic planning, significantly reducing the time and cost associated with pre-engineering.

Conclusion: Embracing the Future of Industrial Heat

Electrifying industrial heat is no longer a distant goal but an achievable reality. With platforms like Entropic, engineers can overcome traditional barriers, accelerating the transition from fossil-fueled boilers to efficient, electric heat pumps.

Ready to transform your factory's thermal profile? Explore Entropic's platform or book a one-on-one demo to see how quickly you can design and implement sustainable heat solutions. Join the growing community of engineers leading the charge toward a decarbonized industrial future.

(For more information, visit: Entropic – Book a Demo)