I’m just tempering the headline, not throwing doubt at the research and development possibilities.

I got excited about the headline, thinking they’d experimentally achieved ore-melting temperatures with a heat pump (“Ultra-hot heatpump breakthrough paves the way […]”).

I guess I perceive 270°C as below the threshold of “ultra hot”.

Later in the article it’s revealed that the breakthrough experiment is paving the way to the (as yet unrealised) ultra-hot (“Luo summarised various research fronts […] promising pathways towards the realisation of ultra-high-temperature heat pumps.”)

Still – 270°C! Commercial/domestic baking ovens when?

Probably yet another overblown headline.

Does anyone have access to the full text of the paper?

https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adv7434

Abstract

Large-scale generative artificial intelligence (AI) is facing a severe computing power shortage. Although photonic computing achieves excellence in decision tasks, its application in generative tasks remains formidable because of limited integration scale, time-consuming dimension conversions, and ground-truth-dependent training algorithms. We produced an all-optical chip for large-scale intelligent vision generation, named LightGen. By integrating millions of photonic neurons on a chip, varying network dimension through proposed optical latent space, and Bayes-based training algorithms, LightGen experimentally implemented high-resolution semantic image generation, denoising, style transfer, three-dimensional generation, and manipulation. Its measured end-to-end computing speed and energy efficiency were each more than two orders of magnitude greater than those of state-of-the-art electronic chips, paving the way for acceleration of large visual generative models.

For over a century, the dream of efficiently concentrating low-grade heat into high-temperature industrial energy has been constrained by a stubborn ceiling: 200 degrees Celsius (392 degrees Fahrenheit).
Now, a team from China has shattered that temperature limit. Using a revolutionary heat pump with no moving parts, they achieved an output of 270 degrees with a 145-degree heat source to drive the cycle.

…so a modest but significant improvement has been achieved, but nowhere near the temps required for melting ore.

But maaaaybe, theoretically, with materials and technologies not yet developed, possibly by 2040:

In a December 5 article in Nature Energy, Luo summarised various research fronts, including his team’s thermoacoustic Stirling heat pump, as promising pathways towards the realisation of ultra-high-temperature heat pumps.
He also suggested development directions for materials and technologies needed for future ultra-high-temperature heat pumps operating from 600K to 1,600K, or 327 degrees to 1,327 degrees, saying these could be achieved by 2040.

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