Japanese researchers say they’ve developed a new type of biomass-fueled heater (PDF) that could provide high-efficiency, sustainable heating to millions of homes across Asia.

Many people in the Far East currently heat their homes using charcoal burned on small, hibachi-style grills — not the most efficient means of providing heat. Even the more advanced improved biomass stoves used in some place in the US and Turkey deliver a thermal efficiency of only 46 to 54 percent.

The biomass charcoal heater proposed by researchers Masayuki Horio, Amit Suri and their team, on the other hand, offers a thermal efficiency of 60 to 81 percent for waste biomass charcoal, and 65 to 86 percent for wood charcoal.

Using biomass energy in such heaters on a mass scale could help reduce atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations, the researchers say.

“In the case of Japan, about 67% of Japan’s land area is covered with forests, and biomass is the single most abundantly available renewable energy source that can be used on demand,” the team writes. “Wood biomass combustion/gasification can thus play a significant role in the domestic electricity supply by following load changes.”

They add, “In Japan, about 28% of the total energy consumed is utilized for domestic usage, of which about 50% is used in hot water supply and space heating. By replacing only 5% of this heating energy, we can obtain a CO2 reduction effect of about 4.46 million tons of CO2/year.”

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