Compression-absorption hybrid heat pumps operating wide temperature ranges: A review and perspectives for large temperature lift

Traditional heat pumps often fail to meet expectations in challenging scenarios such as building heating in severe cold regions and ultra-high temperature industrial heating, primarily due to their limited capacity for wide temperature range operation and restricted delivery of large temperature lifts. Compression-absorption hybrid heat pumps (CAHHP) demonstrate significant potential to overcome these limitations. However, existing literature lacks a systematic review that focuses on addressing these two core challenges and integrates the recent research progress in these extreme application scenarios. To address the identified knowledge gaps, this paper provides a comprehensive review of the fundamental principles and key configurations of CAHHP. It critically examines the advantages and limitations of various working pairs, ranging from traditional types to novel options such as ionic liquids and deep eutectic solvents. On this basis, the current development status of advanced CAHHP in key application areas is highlighted and analyzed. For heating in severe cold climates, the emphasis is on enhancing low-temperature adaptability and developing multi-mode, multi-source complementary strategies. For ultra-high temperature industrial heating, the focus shifts to achieving large temperature lifts and optimizing cascade configurations. Through the prospective analysis of CAHHP for applications requiring wide temperature ranges and significant temperature lifts, this review distills critical insights and outlines potential development directions. It aims to provide valuable theoretical references and technological guidelines to drive the advancement of CAHHP in essential sectors. • Charts a critical roadmap for CAHHP to overcome extreme operational boundaries. • Assesses CAHHP solutions for building heating in severe cold regions. • Dissects CAHHP potential for ultra-high temperature industrial heating. • Proposes “intelligent” stimuli-responsive fluids to break performance barriers. • Distills key challenges and paths for CAHHP-driven decarbonization.