Qpinch Heat Transformer (QHT)

Qpinch is a Belgian technology company headquartered in Antwerp, co-founded in 2012 by Wouter Ducheyne and Christian Heeren. It converts industrial waste heat that is usually rejected to cooling towers into carbon-neutral process steam for refineries, petrochemical and other heat-intensive plants.

The patented Qpinch Heat Transformer is a chemical heat pump that absorbs waste heat from about 80 C and releases process heat up to 210 C through reversible chemical reactions, lifting 80 to 120 C and 120 to 210 C in a single step and recovering about 50% of residual heat. It uses no compressors and needs about 40 kW of electricity per MW of steam. Standard units start at 0.5 MW, the largest custom unit built to date is 15 MW, and capacity grows by adding modules. Target industries are refining, petrochemicals, carbon capture, food and beverage and recycling.

• Chemical heat pump: lifts waste heat through reversible chemical reactions instead of mechanical compression.
• Wide temperature lift: absorbs heat from about 80 C and delivers process heat up to 210 C.
• Single-step upgrade: lifts 80 to 120 C or 120 to 210 C in one step, equivalent to steam at 18 barg.
• Low power demand: about 40 kW of electricity per MW of steam produced.
• Modular scaling: from 0.5 MW standard units up to a 15 MW custom unit built to date.
• Business case simulator: online tool to estimate project economics for a given site.

Vietnamese refineries could upgrade column condenser heat into medium-pressure steam. Fertiliser and chemical plants could cut cooling tower load while producing steam. Large food and beverage plants could recover heat from evaporators and cookers.

Plants turn heat they currently pay to cool into steam, which the company describes as carbon-neutral steam at the lowest variable cost in industry. Electricity use is low at about 40 kW per MW of steam because no compressor is needed. Recovering roughly half of residual heat cuts boiler fuel and cooling tower load at the same time, and a business case simulator lets buyers check economics before a project.

Refineries and chemical complexes reject large amounts of heat at 80 to 150 C while burning fuel for steam, and process licensors are now packaging heat upgrading technologies for these sites. Vietnam's refineries at Dung Quat and Nghi Son and its growing petrochemical and fertiliser plants face the same mix of waste heat and steam demand.

Qpinch was co-founded in 2012 by Wouter Ducheyne and Christian Heeren and is headquartered at Hamburgstraat 3, Antwerp, Belgium. In April 2025 it announced a collaboration with Honeywell UOP to bring the Qpinch Heat Transformer to industrial users. It lists recognition from ICIS, the Royal Society of Chemistry, Essenscia, Solar Impulse and the Port of Antwerp.