Absorption heat pump for waste heat reuse: current states and future development

Absorption heat pump attracts increasing attention due to its advantages in low grade thermal energy utilization. It can be applied for waste heat reuse to save energy consumption, reduce environment pollution, and bring considerable economic benefit. In this paper, three important aspects for absorption heat pump for waste heat reuse are reviewed. In the first part, different absorption heat pump cycles are classified and introduced. Absorption heat pumps for heat amplification and absorption heat transformer for temperature upgrading are included. Both basic single effect cycles and advanced cycles for better performance are introduced. In the second part, different working pairs, including the water based working pairs, ammonia based working pairs, alcohol based working pairs, and halogenated hydrocarbon based working pairs, for absorption heat pump are classified based on the refrigerant. In the third part, the applications of the absorption heat pump and absorption heat transformer for waste heat reuse in different industries are introduced. Based on the reviews in the three aspects, essential summary and future perspective are presented at last.