Home Energy Resources Unit

The Home Energy Resources Unit or Home Energy Recovery Unit (HERU) is a prototype kitchen appliance which is claimed to use household waste to generate energy.
Operation
Household waste, both organic and inorganic, is placed into a main chamber. Plastic and cardboard packaging as well as food waste can be inserted as fuel, and the waste does not need to be sorted or separated. It then goes through an eight-hour cycle. The chamber containing the waste is heated to 100° celsius to evaporate water and remove oxygen. The temperature is then increased and pyrolysis takes place. Oxygen is then re-introduced to allow incineration of the for water heating. After eight hours, a tankful of stored hot water is produced, and all plastic, cardboard and organic waste is reduced to gas and ash. The gas is then used in a domestic boiler, and the ash can be flushed safely into an ordinary sewage system. Any glass or metal waste is left in a clean state.
History
The invention won a grant from the UK Government's Innovate UK Energy Game Changer Fund. The technology won the 2017 Environment and Sustainability Group Prize of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
 
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