A New Class of Industrial Heat Pumps

The Skyven Arcturus Steam-Generating Heat Pump

The Arcturus line of high-temperature industrial heat pumps recovers heat from industrial processes and upgrades it to boiler-quality steam, lowering energy costs and reducing exposure to fuel price volatility.

Key Benefits

Lower Steam Costs

Generates steam at a lower operating cost than conventional boilers by using up to 10x less energy per unit of steam.

Site-Optimized Performance

Configured for each site’s heat sources and steam requirements to optimize performance at the required temperature lift.

Redundancy & Flexibility

Preserves existing boilers for backup while enabling steam generation to shift between electricity and natural gas as prices change.

The Technology

How Arcturus Works

Arcturus uses electricity and recovered heat to generate boiler-quality industrial steam. It captures low-temperature heat from onsite sources like humid exhaust and process cooling and transfers that heat to a water loop. The heated water is then flashed under vacuum to produce low-pressure steam, which passes through a multi-stage compressor train that raises it to the temperature and pressure required by the facility.

Each Arcturus system is configured to match a facility’s available heat sources and steam requirements, determining how many compression stages are needed and how the system is sized.

  • Steam Temperature: Up to 215 C / 420 F
  • Steam Pressure: Up to 20.7 barg / 300 psig
  • System Capacity: 10-100 tons of steam per hour
  • Heat Source Temperature: As low as 30 C / 86 F
  • Coefficient of Performance (COP): 2.0 to more than 8.0, depending on site conditions
  • Refrigerant & Working Fluid: Water (non-toxic, inexpensive, zero GWP)
Best of Both Worlds

High Performance, Standardized Delivery

Other heat pumps prioritize cost or performance. Arcturus delivers both.

Arcturus combines site-specific system configuration with standardized, modular subsystems, delivering optimized performance without the cost and lead times of one-off engineering.

Low Cost

  • Standardized, modular subsystems
  • Repeatable engineering and manufacturing
  • Lower costs and more predictable delivery

High Performance

  • Site-specific system configuration
  • Optimized capacity, temperature lift, and COP
  • Done in hours, not months, with Galileo
Built for Flexibility

Redundant, Hybrid Configuration

Arcturus connects in parallel with existing steam generation systems, adding steam capacity without requiring boiler replacement. This configuration preserves operational continuity while giving facilities greater flexibility in how steam is produced.

  • Continuous Operation: Operates in parallel with existing boilers, adding steam capacity while ensuring full redundancy for ongoing plant operations.
  • Increased Reliability: Supplies baseload steam, while existing boilers remain available for backup and peak demand.
  • Fuel Flexibility: Automatically shifts steam generation between electricity and natural gas as prices and operating needs change, with automated controls that monitor energy rates in real time.

Arcturus Coefficient of Performance (COP)

COP is an expression of efficiency and varies as a function of heat source temperature, steam output pressure, and temperature lift. Arcturus achieves COPs ranging from 2.0 to more than 8.0 depending on temperature lift.

The chart below shows Arcturus COPs at various heat source temperatures with common steam output pressures and temperatures.

Skyven Arcturus — COP Explorer

Skyven Arcturus — COP Explorer

Coefficient of performance across heat source temperatures and steam delivery pressures

Core inputs Heat source & steam pressure
Heat source temperature exhaust or cooling water
71.0°C
Steam delivery pressure saturated steam at 170°C
6.9 barg170°C sat.
COP
—
heat output per unit of electricity
Steam temp
—
at delivery pressure
Temperature lift
—
steam - heat source temp
COP vs heat source temperature
Reference curves
Your selection
e-boiler

Explore Arcturus Projects Across Different Sectors

Pulp & Paper
Recycled paper facility
in Western Europe
Annual Natural Gas Usage:
663,239 MWh
(2,256,147 MMBtu)
Waste Heat Source:
Paper Machine Exhaust

With Skyven Arcturus:

Units:
  • Annual OpEx Savings

    €3,235,480

    (Excluding capital recovery)

  • CapEx to Customer under EaaS

    €0

  • Coefficient of Performance (COP)

    3.1

  • Annual Emissions Avoided

    63,925 tonnes CO₂

Chemicals
Integrated petrochemical
plant in Western Europe
Annual Natural Gas Usage:
856,418 MWh
(2,913,284 MMBtu)
Waste Heat Source:
Column Condenser

With Skyven Arcturus:

Units:
  • Annual OpEx Savings

    €5,995,320

    (Excluding capital recovery)

  • CapEx to Customer under EaaS

    €0

  • Coefficient of Performance (COP)

    3.6

  • Annual Emissions Avoided

    37,682 tonnes CO₂

Food & Beverage
Snack food manufacturing plant
in the Western United States
Annual Natural Gas Usage:
148,465 MWh
(505,036 MMBtu)
Waste Heat Source:
Oven and Fryer Exhaust

With Skyven Arcturus:

Units:
  • Annual OpEx Savings

    €1,421,936

    (Excluding capital recovery)

  • CapEx to Customer under EaaS

    €0

  • Coefficient of Performance (COP)

    2.8

  • Annual Emissions Avoided

    15,435 tonnes CO₂

Ethanol
Ethanol facility in the
Northeastern United States
Annual Natural Gas Usage:
468,855 MWh
(1,594,098 MMBtu)
Waste Heat Source:
Dryer Exhaust

With Skyven Arcturus:

Units:
  • Annual OpEx Savings

    €1,193,487

    (Excluding capital recovery)

  • CapEx to Customer under EaaS

    €0

  • Coefficient of Performance (COP)

    7.6

  • Annual Emissions Avoided

    18,580 tonnes CO₂

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Skyven’s Arcturus is a line of industrial high-temperature heat pumps that use multi-stage compression to recover low-temperature waste heat and upgrade it into boiler-quality steam at temperatures up to 215°C (420°F) and pressures up to 20.7 barg (300 psig), with temperature lifts up to 183°C (330°F). It uses zero-GWP water as both the refrigerant and working fluid.

Arcturus is configured around each facility’s heat sources and steam requirements to optimize performance. Standardized, modular subsystems reduce engineering time, cost, and lead time compared with a fully one-off design, while Skyven uses its Galileo assessment for advanced thermodynamic modeling of the site-specific configuration and expected COP.

Arcturus’s open-cycle architecture also reduces efficiency losses associated with conventional closed-cycle heat pumps, enabling high COPs across a wide range of temperature lifts and steam conditions.

Arcturus is designed for industrial facilities that use at least 10 tons per hour of low- to medium-pressure process steam at temperatures up to 215°C (420°F) and have a suitable source of recoverable waste heat. Common applications include food and beverage, pulp and paper, ethanol and biofuels, chemicals, textiles, pet food processing, and breweries.

The strongest Arcturus opportunities are facilities with significant, consistent steam demand, a suitable source of recoverable waste heat, and steam requirements within Arcturus’s operating range. Skyven’s Galileo assessment evaluates site-specific heat sources, steam conditions, expected system performance, and project economics. The assessment provides a rapid, preliminary view of the potential Arcturus system at your facility.

Arcturus can recover waste heat from exhaust streams and process fluids already present at an industrial facility. Common sources include exhaust from dryers, fryers, ovens, and other thermal processes; paper-machine exhaust; vapor condensed from evaporators, condensers, separation columns, and crystallizers; combustion exhaust from furnaces, process heaters, thermal oxidizers, and ovens; heat rejected by refrigeration systems and process chillers; and cooling water or liquid-cooling loops from data centers.

Arcturus generates boiler-quality steam at temperatures up to 215°C (420°F) and pressures up to 20.7 barg (300 psig), covering a wide range of industrial steam applications. Arcturus can serve process loads downstream of a facility’s main steam header, even if the plant’s main steam system operates at higher pressure.

Skyven evaluates each facility’s required steam conditions and available waste heat to determine the appropriate Arcturus system configuration.

Skyven does not manufacture compressors.  We design, integrate, and deploy high temperature heat pumps.

The compressor train is the heart of the heat pump, but the heat pump is more than the compressor.  We have the compressors in our heat pump design custom made to our specifications by highly reputable, experienced compressor vendors.   We utilize a multi source supply chain, and the compressor vendors we work with have been rigorously qualified by us.

Skyven operates a megawatt-scale Arcturus system at its Dallas, Texas, facility, where customers can see the industrial high-temperature heat pump producing boiler-quality steam under real-world operating conditions.

Arcturus generates boiler-quality steam at much higher efficiencies than traditional fossil fuel-fired boilers, providing a cost advantage over legacy steam generation systems. A brand new, state-of-the-art natural gas (steam) boiler has a typical efficiency of 85%, corresponding to a coefficient of performance (COP) of 0.85 – many times lower than Arcturus’s COP. Each Arcturus system is configured around the facility’s available heat sources and required steam conditions to optimize COP; explore how Arcturus performance varies by site conditions here.

This higher efficiency means that natural gas boilers require several times more energy in the form of natural gas than Arcturus requires in the form of electricity to produce steam, leading to the cost advantage. Note that low electricity costs and high natural gas prices, as well as fuel-switching between Arcturus and existing systems, increases this advantage. 

Arcturus delivers the flexibility of electrified steam at substantially higher efficiency than electric boilers and resistive-heating TES systems, reducing electricity use by 50% or more for the same steam output.

While grid-interactive electric boilers can reduce costs by operating during periods of very low electricity prices, their near-1.0 COP limits the number of hours when they can compete economically with conventional steam generation. Arcturus’s higher efficiency expands that operating window while retaining flexibility to turn off and revert to gas boilers for steam generation during high-price periods.

Thermal energy storage can shift electricity consumption to lower-cost hours, but it does not substantially reduce the energy required to generate steam and may require significant charging capacity.

Arcturus reduces steam costs through high efficiency and flexible operation. Its high COP allows it to produce boiler-quality steam using substantially less purchased energy than gas boilers or resistance-based electrified alternatives.

Because Arcturus operates in parallel with existing boilers, facilities can shift steam production between electricity and natural gas as energy prices and operating conditions change. This flexibility reduces exposure to price volatility and can also enable participation in demand response programs, creating additional savings or revenue.

Skyven offers two deployment models for Arcturus: Energy-as-a-Service and CapEx.

  • Under Energy-as-a-Service, Skyven finances, installs, owns, operates, and maintains the system, while the customer pays for the steam it produces with no upfront capital investment.
  • Under CapEx, the customer owns the Arcturus system and can choose to operate and maintain it directly or contract with Skyven for ongoing operations, maintenance, and support.

Arcturus installs in parallel with your existing steam system rather than replacing it, allowing your boilers to remain available for backup, peak demand, and operational flexibility. Installation and commissioning are planned to minimize disruption to production, and any required steam system tie-ins are coordinated around the facility’s operating schedule.

Arcturus operates in parallel with your existing boilers, so they remain available to maintain steam production during planned maintenance or an unplanned outage. Maintenance responsibility depends on the deployment model. Under Skyven’s Energy-as-a-Service model, Skyven monitors, maintains, and repairs the system for the life of the contract. Under a CapEx purchase, the customer can manage maintenance directly or contract with Skyven for ongoing service and support. Remote monitoring provides visibility into system performance and helps identify issues early.

The cost depends on the deployment model and the requirements of your facility.

  • Under Energy-as-a-Service, Skyven finances, installs, owns, and maintains the Arcturus system, allowing the customer to deploy it with zero capital investment.
  • For CapEx deployments, project cost varies based on system capacity, temperature lift, steam conditions, available waste heat, and site integration requirements.

Skyven develops site-specific performance, cost, and savings estimates during the project evaluation process.

Arcturus requires a medium-voltage electrical connection, with the required connection size depending on the specific system configuration and typically ranging from 1 to 20 MW. The connection supplies drive power for Arcturus’s compressors. Because Arcturus achieves a high COP, it uses 50–65% less electricity than an electric boiler producing the same steam output, significantly reducing the required connection capacity.

Skyven evaluates available grid capacity and connection options during project development. For sites where grid capacity is constrained, Skyven can evaluate flexible or non-firm connection agreements, which allow connection under an interruptible supply arrangement. Arcturus is well-suited for interruptible loads because it operates in parallel with existing boilers and can accept curtailment without affecting production.

Skyven can also support utility coordination and electrical interconnection as part of the project scope.

Industrial heat pumps have the opportunity to improve efficiency and dramatically cut emissions from industrial thermal processes.

Renewable Thermal Collaborative

Electrification action plan

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