Enairon's EIC Accelerator Compresses Air With Water

Compressed air is the utility nobody thinks about and everybody pays for. About 70% of industrial sectors rely on it, it accounts for roughly 10% of global industrial electricity consumption, and conventional compressors convert less than half the energy supplied into useful compressed air, because compressing a gas heats it and that heat is thrown away. Enairon, based at the Stena Center in Gothenburg, compresses air with water and gravity instead, approaching isothermal compression, and says this cuts electricity use by 37%.

The EIC Accelerator selected the project, Airon, at its October 2024 cut-off for blended finance, and CORDIS records a grant of €2,473,954.56 from June 2025 to May 2027 to launch a first series of 400kW compressors, ten times the air volume of the current prototype. Electricity is 80 to 90% of a compressor's lifecycle cost, which is why a third off the power bill is the entire sales pitch.

A paper mill ran it for months

The verification is the strongest part of this company's record. Under a 2019 agreement with Stora Enso, a 36kW Gravity Compressor supplied the paper mill at Hylte Bruk for several months at 7 bar, handling the factory's fluctuating air demand and adjusting from 0 to 100% capacity in under ten seconds, according to the company's customer page. Stora Enso's area manager for energy efficiency is quoted saying the project achieved its purpose. CORDIS records the technology at TRL 6, demonstrated in a relevant environment at that pilot customer.

The next customer is Höganäs AB, the powder metallurgy group, which is to receive the next-generation Gravity Compressor at its Swedish headquarters with a capacity of 5,100 normal cubic metres, sized for peak demand and low-flow periods, with an anticipated 37% reduction in energy use against its current compressors. Höganäs' energy coordinator is quoted on the investment, and the company also mentions quieter operation. Södra Cell is described as having run an evaluation of its compressed air system.

The jump the grant pays for

What the EIC is funding is the step from a verified 36kW machine to a 400kW series, which the project describes as ten times the air volume, within two years. That is the hard part of industrial equipment: a water-and-gravity compressor that works at pilot scale has to be engineered, manufactured and serviced at the size a steel plant or paper mill actually buys. The company's published project milestone so far is modest and specific: a finalised optimised design plan, verified by approval of that plan.

The commercial model in the project is equally concrete: a total addressable stationary market of €30.31 billion by 2030, a 3.6% share, and about 87 units sold across European and Asian markets for more than €100 million of revenue. CORDIS shows no periodic report.

1. Working compressor in industryVerified36kW unit supplied the Hylte Bruk paper mill for months, per the company.
2. Named industrial customersTwoStora Enso for verification, Höganäs for the next unit.
3. 400kW commercial seriesIn designDesign plan completed as the project's first milestone.
4. 37% saving measured in productionAnticipatedStated as the expected outcome at Höganäs, not a measurement.

The EIC Fund actually invested

On 5 May 2026 Turbine Capital led a SEK 45 million round in Enairon with Almi Invest GreenTech, the European Innovation Council Fund and existing investors, according to the law firm Vinge, which advised the lead investors. That makes Enairon one of the minority of companies in this cut-off where the equity half of the blended award has been confirmed rather than promised. The company's accounts were not obtained for this article.

The cheapest decarbonisation is the one nobody notices

European industry's electricity bill is a competitiveness problem and an emissions problem at once, and compressed air is one of the largest single uses inside a factory. A retrofittable machine that cuts that use by a third needs no change in process, no new fuel and no permit. The EIC's clean air and climate action trackers sit at 40% for this project, and Swedish industrial groups have hosted prototypes. It is also the kind of mechanical engineering Europe still does well.