An overview of the progress of new working pairs in absorption heat pumps

Absorption heat pumps have emerged as a potential tool to address the energy crisis because of their ability to utilize low-grade heat. The performance of an absorption heat pump largely depends on the efficiency of the working pair to operate at the source temperature. The commercialized working pairs H2O/LiBr and NH3/H2O linger with operational and economic issues. Several binary/ternary combinations were tested among water, ammonia, salt, alcohols, hydrocarbons, and ionic liquids (ILs) in quest of the potential working pairs. The last decade has witnessed a stupendous surge in IL-based working pairs because of their several advantageous properties over the traditional solvents. The present review encompasses the research progress on various working pairs, in particular, their properties, modeling and correlation results, and coefficient of performance (COP) values.