Clean technology heat pumps have the potential to reduce emissions by over 1.5 billion tons

everal industry insiders have told 21st Century Business Herald reporters that the emission reduction potential of China's heat pump technology exceeds 1.5 billion tons. Heat pump technology is not just a "household energy-saving tool", but can become an important way to leverage deep decarbonization in the industrial sector in the future. At the same time, the diverse industrial application scenarios of "heat pump+" are poised to take off.

Heat pump has the potential to reduce emissions by over 1.5 billion tons

A heat pump is an efficient energy conversion device that converts low-grade thermal energy into high-grade thermal energy by consuming a small amount of electricity. It can effectively meet the heat demand for production and daily life, and improve energy utilization efficiency.

Hu Bin, Associate Researcher at the Institute of Refrigeration and Low Temperature Engineering at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, told 21st Century Business Herald reporters that in the future clean heating field, heat pumps will play a key role and occupy an absolute core technological position. Heat pump is an emerging industry that contributes to achieving China's carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals, and has significant energy-saving and emission reduction effects.

Previously, the National Energy Administration and other departments jointly released the "Action Plan for Promoting High Quality Development of the Heat Pump Industry". It is explicitly stated that by 2030, efforts will be made to continuously enhance the production, manufacturing, and technological research and development capabilities of heat pumps, improve the energy efficiency level of key heat pump products by more than 20%, make breakthroughs in core technologies such as high-power high-temperature heat pumps, high-efficiency compressors, and new refrigerants, continuously increase the application area of heat pumps in buildings and the assembly capacity of heat pump machines, significantly improve the high-quality development level of the heat pump industry, and continuously expand international competitive advantages.

Zhao Hengyi, Vice Chairman of the China Energy Conservation Association and Secretary General of the Heat Pump Professional Committee, told 21st Century Business Herald reporters that overall, the emission reduction potential of China's heat pump technology is approximately 1.5 billion to 2 billion tons, accounting for 15% to 20% of China's total carbon emissions.

At present, industrial heat pump technology at home and abroad is in a rapid development stage. Zhao Hengyi introduced that its development characteristics are mainly reflected in two aspects. Firstly, in terms of technological research and development, industrial heat pump host technology is continuously making breakthrough progress. Secondly, in terms of practical application, the application scenarios of this technology have formed a multidimensional expansion trend, covering multiple industrial fields such as petrochemicals, textile printing and dyeing, food processing, papermaking, pharmaceuticals, building materials, etc., and have demonstrated the potential for technological adaptability and efficiency improvement in practical applications in various fields.

The unique feature of industrial heat pump technology is that it achieves the recovery and reuse of waste heat through electrification, and significantly improves the quality of waste heat. For example, it can increase the waste heat from 40-50 degrees to over 100 degrees for reuse. Without heat pump technology, this waste heat is often wasted and directly discharged into the environment.

Recently, the National Development and Reform Commission and other departments issued a notice on the construction of zero carbon parks, which clearly requires promoting the active utilization of thermal energy resources such as biomass energy, nuclear energy, solar thermal energy, geothermal energy, and industrial waste heat in parks to achieve clean and low-carbon heating systems.