Transition from conventional industrial parks to zero-carbon parks: A feasibility study on low-temperature retrofit of existing heating systems

The transition of industrial parks toward zero-carbon operation is a critical pathway for advancing global climate governance and supporting China's carbon-neutrality goals. However, existing district heating systems in industrial parks are predominantly designed for high-temperature operation. It makes the retrofitting to low-temperature heating subject to significant hydraulic and thermal adaptability challenges. To address this issue, this study proposes a feasibility analysis method for the low-temperature retrofitting of existing heating systems. Under the premise of identifying available low-temperature heat sources, a multi-scale analytical framework which spans the park, building, and room levels, is established to evaluate the hydraulic behavior of the distribution network and the heat emission performance of terminal equipment at different supply temperatures. The results show that reducing the supply water temperature increases the circulation flow rate and aggravates the risk of hydraulic imbalance, which requires measures such as balancing-valve adjustment and operational optimization to ensure stable distribution-system operation. Window-adjacent areas are the most temperature-sensitive zones under low-temperature heating. For aerodynamic circulation heating rooms, appropriately lowering the supply-air temperature and increasing the supply airflow can improve thermal comfort. In the case study, a 40% increase in supply airflow reduces the window-adjacent low-temperature disturbance zone by about 20%.