By GREGORY ZELLER //
The shining star of Stony Brook University’s commercialization ecosystem is all growed up – and ready to reshape the global heating-and-cooling landscape.
As a client of Stony Brook’s Clean Energy Business Incubator Program and a resident of the university’s Advanced Energy Research and Technology Center, 2012 startup ThermoLift – co-founded by current Director Paul Schwartz and international engineering stalwart Peter Hofbauer – has advanced the principles of the extreme-temperature Vuilleumier thermodynamic cycle, resulting in the unprecedented Hofbauer Cycle.
The Hofbauer cycle, named for the cofounder and longtime Volkswagen engineering standout, is the heart of ThermoLift’s high-efficiency, refrigerant-free HVAC, hot-water and refrigeration system – an all-in-one appliance that’s poised to redefine residential and commercial space conditioning in virtually all global climates.
Rigorous laboratory work, copious networking with likeminded researchers (and industrial benefactors) and a steady stream of critical field tests (each more substantial than the last) have brought the company to the brink of commercialization – and made it the first to “graduate” from the CEBIP program.
The company plans to remain an AERTC resident for now. But ThermoLift has “completed all the (CEBIP) training that was offered,” according to Schwartz, who was celebrated along with the rest of the ThermoLift team at a recent CEBIP Board of Directors meeting, officially marking the company’s completion of the incubator program’s contractual obligations.
The co-founder credits CEBIP with keeping the 2012 startup on track throughout a long and difficult development process.
“This was such a great opportunity for ThermoLift to consistently be exposed to groups and organizations that had an interest in energy,” Schwartz said. “It was through those connections that we were first introduced to the Long Island Angel Network and made other important connections in the energy industry.
“These are the kinds of opportunities that came through CEBIP,” he added. “That made us part of a real community.”
Paul Schwartz: CEBIP credibility.
In addition to exposing potential investors to ThermoLift’s technology – which leverages its unique thermodynamic cycle to dramatically cut carbon emissions and operational costs, while replacing aging boilers and air-conditioning systems with a single, high-efficiency appliance capable of simultaneous heating and refrigeration – the incubator program was instrumental in arranging critical field tests with the U.S. Department of Energy, Tennessee’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and other vital partners.
“CEBIP helped us put ourselves in a position to get multiple field tests,” Schwartz noted. “They helped us arrange peer-reviewed journal publications – three over the years – that validated the science of what ThermoLift is doing, and that’s what sets up the opportunity for me to talk to a big utility company.
“That’s a real credibility factor,” he added. “CEBIP set up our company for success.”
But CEBIP is “an early-stage incubator,” according to the innovator, and ThermoLift is ready to go pro. Shaking off the sluggish slowdown of the COVID-19 pandemic, the company is anticipating several critical trial runs in the coming year – in Vancouver with partner FortisBC (and funding from the Canadian Gas Association), in Metropolitan New York and elsewhere – and recently introduced new CEO David Parks, an assistant dean and associate professor at the University of Texas at Dallas.
The addition of Parks – one-time executive VP for New York-based distributor Carrier Enterprise, former president of Mississippi-based commercial-refrigeration specialist Master-Bilt and past president and CEO of bustling New Jersey-based subsidiary Haier America – follows the addition of former National Grid U.S. Chairman Bob Catell to ThermoLift’s Board of Directors.
The fresh blood has supercharged ThermoLift, according to Schwartz, who also sits on the board and remains hands-on in multiple business operations.
“This is what you look for in a company, as a sign of success,” the cofounder noted. “Somebody who’s part of a larger organization in your industry comes in to help.
“We did as much as we could to get information out of CEBIP – we pushed (Executive Director) David Hamilton and his team hard,” Schwartz added. “Graduating is definitely a sign of success for the relationship between the company and CEBIP.
“I’m the first alumnus of the program, so that’s a nice compliment, that we worked so well together for eight years.”
