The chemical heat pump is an alternative for improving the effectiveness of energy use. Waste heat at low temperatures will be recovered via a reversible chemical reaction. It will be absorbed by an endothermic reaction and transferred to new chemicals. The new Chemicals are then reacted and liberate beat at high temperatures by an exothermic reaction. This paper presents a study on the development of a demonstration unit of a isopropanol-acetone-hydrogen chemical heat pump system. All major components in the system were individually investigated, which are endothermic and exothermic reactors and a distillation column. These components were then assembled and the system run. Finally, data were collected and the performance evaluated. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.