Industrial Waste Heat Recovery and Heat Pump System Integration: A Critical Review

Ze-Yang Chen, Yan-Zuo Chang, Shun-Tian Huang, Zi-Shuo Liu, Hong-Yi Chen, Geng-Wen Cai, Hong-Fei Wu, Lin-Tao He, Zheng-Bo Hou

industrial residual heat recycling; high-temperature heat pump; system collaborative integration; energy saving and carbon abatement; cascade utilization of low-grade thermal energy

Amid global energy restructuring toward low-carbon development and the steady advancement of China’s dual-carbon strategic layout, industrial energy consumption consistently occupies a high proportion in total social energy usage. Mass quantities of low-grade residual heat generated during industrial production are directly discharged without effective recycling, which not only creates massive energy wastage but also aggravates regional greenhouse gas pollution and environmental load. By upgrading heat pump thermal utilization technologies, low-temperature low-quality residual heat can be captured and upgraded into high-grade heat medium suitable for factory production, which has become a core technical route to realize industrial energy conservation, carbon emission reduction and graded exploitation of residual heat resources. This paper comprehensively sorts out domestic and overseas existing research findings plus practical engineering examples, and conducts systematic reviews on full-chain core technologies linking industrial residual heat recycling and heat pump matching integration. Relevant research progress is classified from five dimensions including residual heat inherent properties, heat pump working principles, system matching schemes, core component technologies and multi-industry practical applications. The paper objectively summarizes existing technical bottlenecks, divergent academic viewpoints and blank research fields of current technologies. Combined with relevant industrial policy orientation, the paper further forecasts the development trend of high-temperature heat pump equipment, digital intelligent linkage and multi-energy complementary integrated technologies. Relevant research conclusions can provide theoretical reference and practical guidance for efficient recycling of industrial residual heat and low-carbon upgrading of manufacturing industries.

Received: 03 May 2026, Received in revised form: 31 May 2026, Accepted: 04 Jun 2026, Available online: 09 Jun 2026

10.22161/ijaers.136.3