Material Insights · Understanding the Material World

Heat pumps, air conditioning and refrigeration: Equipment and suppliers

Compressors, coils, inverters and the refrigerant choice

What this tab covers For each method, the main pieces of equipment, who makes them (by region) and what they are made of (bill of materials).

Every compression machine has four main parts: compressor, two heat exchangers and an expansion device, plus inverter electronics and the refrigerant. Absorption machines replace the compressor with an absorber, generator and solution pump.

Vapour-compression heat pumps, air conditioners and refrigerators

Compressor (rotary, scroll, screw or centrifugal)36

Raises refrigerant pressure and temperature; uses most of the electricity.

China GMCC (Midea), Gree (Zhuhai Landa), Shanghai Highly, Rechi Japan and Korea Daikin, Mitsubishi Electric (with Siam Compressor in Thailand), Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Panasonic, LG India Tecumseh (Hyderabad plant), Highly India Rest of world Siam Compressor (Thailand), Kulthorn Kirby (Thailand, reciprocating refrigerator compressors), Tecumseh (Brazil)
Bill of materials
  • Motor: copper windings on electrical steel; brushless motors for variable speed
  • Compression parts: precision-machined cast iron and steel rollers, scrolls or screws
  • Shell: welded steel hermetic casing
Heat exchangers (evaporator and condenser)3

Move heat between refrigerant and air or water; the main unit makers (named by the IEA as R&D leaders) build most coils in-house.

Japan Daikin China Midea Europe Nibe United States Carrier
Bill of materials
  • Coils: copper tubes with aluminium fins (fin-and-tube) or brazed stainless-steel plate exchangers for water
Inverter drive and controls611

Varies compressor speed to match load, raising seasonal efficiency. Japan supplied nearly 40% of China's imported air-conditioner parts (including inverter controllers) in 2017.

Japan and Korea Mitsubishi Electric (intelligent power modules for air-conditioner inverters, company product line)
Bill of materials
  • Power electronics: power semiconductors, control chips, sensors on circuit boards
Refrigerant378910

Working fluid that boils and condenses in the loop.

United States Chemours, Solstice Advanced Materials (formerly Honeywell refrigerants) China Zhejiang Juhua
Bill of materials
  • Fluids: HFCs such as R32 (GWP 675), HFOs such as HFO-1234yf (GWP about 1), or propane (GWP about 3) and CO2 (GWP 1); below-150-GWP refrigerants expected in Europe and Japan by the end of the 2020s and in China and the United States by the early 2030s

Absorption chillers

Generator, absorber, condenser and evaporator shells5121314

Heat boils refrigerant out of the salt solution; the absorber takes it back in at low pressure.

China Broad Group, Shuangliang Eco-Energy India Thermax Japan and Korea Kawasaki Thermal Engineering (first triple-effect unit, COP 1.6), Yazaki Energy System United States Johnson Controls (York), Carrier
Bill of materials
  • Working pair: lithium bromide solution with water, or water with ammonia
  • Vessels and tube bundles: steel shells with copper or copper-nickel tubes
  • Solution pump: the only significant electrical load

Sources

  1. Heat Pumps Step Up: What the IEA's Heat Pump Monitor 2026 Means for Heating, Industry and Energy Security (summary of IEA Heat Pump Monitor 2026, https://www.iea.org/reports/heat-pump-monitor-2026) IEA Heat Pumping Technologies TCP, 2026
  2. Combined Heat and Power Technology Fact Sheet Series: Absorption Chillers for CHP Systems US Department of Energy, 2017
  3. Mapping the Supply Chain for Room Air Conditioning Compressors (NREL/TP-6A20-73206) National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 2019
  4. Chemours commends the Supreme People's Court for upholding Honeywell's HFO-1234yf patent Chemours, 2021
  5. Honeywell in Refrigerant Deal With Juhua (HFO-1234yf toll manufacturing in China; dated) CHEManager, 2016
  6. Technology Transitions GWP Reference Table US Environmental Protection Agency, 2025
  7. Honeywell completes Solstice spin-off Cooling Post, 2025
  8. Power Devices: Applications, Air Conditioner (company product information) Mitsubishi Electric, 2025
  9. Global market for absorption chillers (key players named in market report; dated) International Institute of Refrigeration, 2015
  10. YHAU-CW double-effect steam-fired absorption chiller (company product page) Johnson Controls (York), 2025
  11. Absorption: triple efficiency International Institute of Refrigeration, 2006