New study from American Lung Assocation suggests that replacing industrial boilers with heat pumps by 2050 would prevent 77,200 premature deaths and 204,000 asthma cases (https://bit.ly/46HchSF). Electrifying building and some process heat doesn’t eliminate all emissions as most are transferred back to the power plants on the local grid, but power plants are more efficient, better maintained, and produce fewer pollutants per unit of energy than small scale installations like oil or natural gas boilers for individual buildings. This amounts to 6 prevented cases of asthma and 2.3 prevented fatalities per replaced boiler. Most of this technology is ready today and helping people breathe easier is an immense benefit to quality of life and productivity.
This US Department of Energy report contains additional technical details on implementation and expected efficiency savings associated with industrial heat pumps. (https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2014/05/f15/heatpump.pdf)
