Intelligent Heat System - High-Energy Efficient Wood Stoves with Low Emissions. Emissions of Gases and Particles

A collaboration project between the CHEC research Centre, at DTU Chemical Engineering, and the stove manufacturing company HWAM A/S has been established during the last years and has led to development and marketing of wood stoves (Autopilot IHS) equipped with a digital control system. The improved performance has been verified by field tests in private homes. The main components of an Autopilot IHS wood stove are: a modern wood stove with three separate combustion air inlets, and a control system composing of measuring devices for vital process parameters and a system of controlling valves to regulate the individual air flows. The research wood stove set-up at DTU is instrumented with gas analyzers, local temperature measurements, and particle sampling equipment for measurement of particle concentration, size and composition. A detailed study has been conducted to map gaseous and PM emissions for various combustion charges and phases. The experiments showed that the digital control of the combustion process ensures constant and optimal temperatures and overall oxygen concentrations in the combustion chamber resulting in low PM and CO emissions.