A new heating technology, backed by boiler manufacturer BAXI, has released the results of an independent scrutiny report that demonstrates its advantages over traditional waste processing in terms of environmental impact.

The HERU converts plastics, food waste, nappies and cardboard into energy to heat a domestic boiler and could save each household 1,200 kg of CO2 per year.

The Energy & Environment report undertook a life cycle assessment of the HERU’s environmental impacts, compared with collecting co-mingled collections of dry recyclables for sorting at a materials recovery facility; and kerbside sorting which separates materials ready for onwards transport to reprocessors.

The report found that the HERU, which uses pyrolysis to turn everyday resource into energy to fuel a domestic boiler, saves each household 72 kg of CO2 annually, while the HERU, when powered by solar, saves each household 1,200 kg of CO2.This is 68 per cent less global warming impact than co-mingled collections, and 32 per cent less than kerbside collections.

It was estimated that if this was adopted across all the UK's 27 million households this would be equivalent to 8.8 per cent of total UK carbon output.

Nik Spencer, the inventor of the HERU, said: “We opened up the HERU to independent scrutiny as part of our continual process of refinement and improvement, however, the results are truly staggering.

"Climate change and global warming is something that is and will continue to affect us all, and solutions such as the HERU clearly provide viable technology to start addressing these global problems, particularly when used with renewable technologies such as solar."

HERU will be undertaking technical trials at UK sites, ahead of a move to the mass market.

This latter development is being further accelerated in partnership with the UK’s Manufacturing Technology Centre. The trials are also supported by BAXI, Worcestershire County Council, Wychavon District Council and Rugby Borough Council.

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