Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials Develops Waste‑Heat Heat Pump for Cooling

Researchers at South Korea's Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM), together with Chung‑Ang University and Samjung Tech, have built a next‑generation heat‑pump that provides cooling by using low‑temperature waste heat of about 40 °C from factories and data centres. Funded by the Alchemist Project of the Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning (KETEP), the system combines a chemical adsorption bed with an electrochemical compressor that has no moving parts, consuming less electricity and producing virtually no noise or vibration.

The 10 kW prototype achieves a specific cooling power of 346.5 W/kg—more than twice the performance of comparable international technologies—and uses ammonia as a natural refrigerant. The design is intended for noise‑sensitive environments such as hospitals, schools, residential buildings, and commercial facilities, and the team is conducting field demonstrations to move the technology toward commercial deployment.