Electricity from air technology targets HVACR
21st January 2026
UK: A means to generate electricity from ambient air, which is targeted for integration into HVACR equipment, has raised £2m in seed funding and support from Coca-Cola.
Ionech, a cleantech startup based at Harwell Campus, has raised the funding to commercialise its air voltaic cell technology, which uses high voltage pulses and field electron emission to generate superoxide ions. These ions then convert the thermal and chemical energy of ambient air into usable electrical power. The company is initially targeting integration into commercial HVACR systems.
“Energy sits at the foundation of the technology stack,” said Thomas Kirk, co-founder of Ionech. “We’re building a platform energy technology that will fundamentally change the distribution and consumption of electricity in energy-intensive industries.”
The seed funding round was led by Elbow Beach Capital, with an additional £700,000 grant from Innovate UK.
The company’s existing joint development agreement with Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP) will see the technology piloted in Coca-Cola’s drinks cooler fleet.
“We continue to be excited about the potential of the technology that Ionech is developing, and how it could support CCEP in accelerating towards our sustainability goals,” said CCEP’s sustainability VP Joe Franses.
“Their investment enables the transition from lab-scale development to real-world pilots, including initial work with CCEP’s cooler fleet,” said Nathan Owen, co-founder and managing director of Ionech. “It also accelerates our route to market and deployment across energy-intensive applications, such as HVAS and data centres, with the potential to reduce energy consumption, emissions, and reliance on the grid at scale.”
