CRMT SAS

Their core work

CRMT SAS (Centre de Recherches en Machines Thermiques) is a French engineering SME specializing in thermal machine systems — engines, heat pumps, and energy conversion technologies. Their work bridges combustion engineering and renewable energy systems: they develop practical retrofit kits for converting diesel vehicles to run on natural gas and biogas, and contribute to integrated renewable energy systems for agricultural facilities. In RES4LIVE, they brought thermal systems expertise to a livestock farming decarbonization project, covering heat pump integration, PVT (photovoltaic-thermal) systems, and biomethane-fuelled tractors. Their strength is applied thermal engineering with a focus on fossil fuel substitution in transport and agricultural machinery.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

CRMT's two H2020 projects show a clear shift in application domain while maintaining the same underlying thermal engineering core. In 2018, their focus was squarely on transport — specifically replacing diesel fuel in commercial vehicles with CNG and biogas through a retrofit kit approach, an industrial product development play. By 2020–2024, they had moved into agricultural energy systems, applying similar combustion and thermal knowledge to livestock farm decarbonization: heat pumps, PVT panels, biogas upgrading, and biomethane-powered tractors. The trend is from single-product vehicle retrofitting toward integrated, multi-technology renewable energy systems in food production.

CRMT appears to be moving from product-focused transport solutions toward systems-level roles in agricultural decarbonization, making them a plausible partner for future agri-energy or rural renewable energy projects.

How they like to work

CRMT has taken both a lead role (BLUESKY, where they coordinated an SME Instrument Phase 1 feasibility project alone) and a partner role (RES4LIVE, a large Innovation Action with 16 consortium partners). The BLUESKY coordinatorship suggests they are capable of driving small, commercially-oriented projects independently. Their participation in RES4LIVE as one of 16 partners across 7 countries suggests they contribute specialist thermal systems knowledge to larger consortia rather than managing them.

CRMT has collaborated with 16 unique partners across 7 countries, almost entirely through the RES4LIVE consortium. Their network is European in scope but thin — built on a single large project rather than repeated collaboration across multiple grants.

What sets them apart

CRMT occupies a specific niche that few SMEs cover: applied thermal machine engineering at the intersection of transport, agriculture, and renewable gas. Their name and history suggest deep expertise in combustion and heat exchange that most energy-focused SMEs lack. For a consortium that needs someone who can make a heat pump or a biogas engine actually work in the field — not just model it — CRMT brings hands-on engineering competence that complements the research-heavy profiles typical of university partners.

Highlights from their portfolio

• RES4LIVE
  A 4-year Innovation Action running to 2024 with €443k in EC funding, targeting zero fossil fuel livestock farming through an unusually broad technology stack: heat pumps, PVT systems, biogas upgrading, and biomethane tractors in a single integrated project.
• BLUESKY
  CRMT's only coordinator role — an SME Instrument Phase 1 project developing a commercial retrofit kit for converting diesel vehicles to CNG/biogas, demonstrating their capacity to lead market-facing product development independently.