A noiseless and vibration-free heat pump system that uses industrial waste heat as low as 40°C to generate cooling has been developed by Korean researchers.
While conventional air conditioning systems use vast amounts of electricity, a research team at the Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM) have developed a heat pump system that is powered using waste heat that would usually dissipate into the atmosphere.
If located near a factory or a data centre, the warm exhaust streams - around 40°C - generated by these facilities could power the chemical adsorption heat pump system to provide cooling to nearby public buildings such as hospitals and schools or, indeed, to provide cooling to the data centre itself.
According to the team, whereas conventional adsorption cooling systems require a heat source above 70°C to function, their system successfully demonstrated cooling operation using lower temperature waste heat.
The research team redesigned the adsorption bed, a core component...