Q1: Promethean Energy was founded with a vision to decarbonize low- and medium-temperature process heat in the Indian industry. How do you define “industrial decarbonization” in this context, and what market gaps or inefficiencies convinced you to build solutions here?

Industrial decarbonization, for us, refers to replacing fossil-fuel-based heat in factories with cleaner, more efficient thermal systems that deliver the same or better process performance at a lower operating cost. In India, over half of industrial energy use goes into generating low and medium temperature heat, yet most factories still rely on LPG, PNG, diesel, or coal boilers that are inefficient and expensive. The market suffers from three gaps: a lack of commercially viable alternatives for 50 to 120 degree Celsius heat, poor recovery of waste heat from existing utilities such as compressors and chillers, and limited real-time visibility into energy performance. These gaps created the opportunity to build a platform of heat recovery systems and high-temperature heat pumps focused on solving India’s thermal energy problem at scale.

Q2: Promethean has developed products such as CompMate, FlowTherm, ChillerMate, and the Tetra Heat Pump. Could you share one or two examples of these technologies in practice, and how they fit into India’s broader industrial decarbonization pathway?

Our portfolio is built around modular systems that can be deployed quickly across industries.

CompMate captures waste heat from air compressors and uses it to generate hot water for process heating. In FMCG and automotive plants, this alone can offset between 20 and 40 percent of hot water loads. It is one of the fastest-payback solutions in the market.

FlowTherm recovers heat from hot effluent streams. A textile factory using it can preheat feed or process water with zero incremental emissions, reducing boiler load significantly.

ChillerMate taps into rejected heat from chillers to produce usable hot water. In pharmaceuticals and food processing, this closes the loop between cooling and heating, improving overall energy efficiency.

The Tetra Heat Pump is our flagship high-temperature heat pump that delivers hot water up to 90 to 95 degree Celsius using electricity and recovered heat. It replaces fossil-fuel boilers for pasteurization, pre treatment lines, cleaning processes, and reactor heating.

Together, these solutions form a practical pathway for Indian industry to phase out fossil fuels rapidly, using a mix of heat recovery and efficient electric heat.

Q3: Balancing feasibility, cost competitiveness, and reliability is critical for industrial decarbonization. How do you de-risk adoption for customers—considering challenges like capex, process integration, and payback—and what financing or business models (e.g., ESCOs, carbon credits, partnerships) have proven most effective?

Factories are cautious about anything that touches their core processes, so our approach focuses on reducing technical and financial risk. Technically, we start with a detailed feasibility study, simulate process integration, and design plug-and-play systems that do not interfere with existing operations. We also size systems conservatively to ensure reliability across seasonal variations.

Financially, we offer multiple options. Customers can purchase systems outright, opt for a shared-savings ESCO model with zero capex, or combine heat pump deployments with carbon credit monetization where applicable. Our IoT-based measurement and verification ensures transparent savings, which helps CFOs and plant managers gain confidence in long-term returns.

Q4: Industries such as automotive, FMCG, textiles, and chemicals are adopting cleaner heat solutions at different speeds. Which subsectors are most promising today, which remain at a pilot stage, and how do evolving policy and regulatory frameworks influence this transition?

Automotive paint shops, FMCG, food and beverage, and pharmaceuticals are currently the fastest adopters because they have consistent hot water requirements and high fuel costs. Textiles and chemicals are promising but still at a pilot stage for heat pumps above 90 degrees due to process complexity and variations in effluent characteristics.

Policy is a strong tailwind. India’s push for renewable electricity, the PAT scheme, corporate decarbonization targets, and the increasing cost of fossil fuels are accelerating the shift towards clean-heat technologies. As compliance expectations tighten, industries are beginning to treat thermal decarbonization as a strategic priority rather than a cost-saving exercise.

Q5: Promethean emphasizes guaranteed savings through IoT-enabled monitoring and verification. How does this system work in practice to build trust with CFOs and plant managers? Beyond energy savings, how do you evaluate and communicate broader benefits, such as air quality improvements, efficiency gains, or reduced dependence on fossil fuels?

Every Promethean system is equipped with energy meters, ultrasonic flowmeters, and matched-pair temperature sensors that stream data to the cloud. Customers can log into a dashboard and see real-time heat delivered, energy consumed, COP values, hourly savings, and emissions avoided. This transparent measurement and verification is essential for building trust, especially under ESCO models.

Beyond energy savings, we quantify the reduction in fuel deliveries, improvements in workplace air quality due to lower combustion, increased reliability of heating systems, and operational efficiency gains from stabilized temperatures. These benefits help strengthen the sustainability narrative while also appealing to production and maintenance teams.

Q6: Industrial adoption often faces barriers, including conservative procurement practices and limited awareness. What have been the biggest behavioural or institutional hurdles in your journey, and how does Promethean differentiate itself in a competitive clean-heat landscape?

Industrial procurement is conservative and often favors legacy technologies. Many factories are used to boilers running for decades, even if they are inefficient. The biggest hurdles have been: long internal decision cycles, the need for extensive stakeholder alignment, and limited awareness of modern heat recovery and high temperature heat pump technologies.

Promethean differentiates itself through deep engineering design, predictable performance, and the ability to integrate into complex industrial utilities. We combine heat recovery, heat pumps, automation, and IoT in a unified platform. This end-to-end approach allows us to guarantee outcomes rather than just supply equipment, which is a key reason customers select us over local or imported alternatives.

Q7: Looking ahead, which industrial decarbonization solutions do you see as the next frontier—higher-temperature heat pumps, thermal storage, integration with renewables, or new geographies? Could you also share Promethean’s growth roadmap in terms of scaling within India and internationally, and the role of partnerships, financing, and policy support in enabling this journey?

The next wave of solutions will include high temperature heat pumps delivering 120 to 150 degree Celsius heat, hybrid systems that combine heat pumps with thermal storage, and deeper integration of renewables to offset grid electricity. There is also growing interest in electrified steam generation for processes currently dependent on boilers.

Our growth roadmap involves scaling deployments across India, expanding into Southeast Asia and the Middle East, and building partnerships with OEMs, EPC firms, and energy service providers. Policy support in the form of incentives for electrified heat and recognition of heat recovery within carbon markets will accelerate adoption. We aim to establish Promethean as a clean-heat platform that helps industries transition away from fossil fuels in a practical and scalable manner.

Background of Promethean Energy

Promethean Energy is a clean-heat technology company focused on decarbonizing low and medium temperature process heat in Indian industry. The company builds advanced heat recovery systems and high-temperature heat pumps that replace fossil-fuel boilers while reducing operating costs. Its product suite includes CompMate for compressor heat recovery, FlowTherm for gas heat recovery, AquaStell for effluent heat recovery, ChillerMate for chiller heat reuse, and the Tetra Heat Pump platform. Promethean’s IoT-enabled monitoring ensures guaranteed, verifiable savings and supports industries in their transition to cleaner, more efficient thermal energy systems.